It was easy enough getting to the pyramid, though Drone had to stay right down against the ground. Above and around the bound bodies, there was an entire mess of taught strings, and I wasn’t about to figure out which were dummies and which were the real deal. It was all too mixed up. I didn’t see any phones by the bodies, so there wasn’t anything to steal, either. The whole situation told me the next step was to grab the casket and fly off. But I wasn’t in a hurry. Something was bothering me — there was no sense going to all the trouble of mining the area when someone could just slip in with a small flying device. It was too simple, and that told me there was a catch. This game really is making me paranoid. Nobody know about Drone; everyone just thought I could fly myself. That’s what the threads were set up for. Everything was set up to make sure a human couldn’t make their way in, though nobody could have predicted that I’d have Drone. There’s no way!
But when I got Drone a meter higher, I began to lose confidence. The spot the whole spider web centered around was so thick that my flying assistant’s camera pointed it out. And underneath it, I saw another layer. That forced me dangerously low, risking myself in any explosion that might happen, though I was able to make out another web getting in the way of Drone flying any higher. It was beautifully hidden underneath the main section.
Okay, let me try something else…
The arm reached out from the body and reached upward, edging its way around the trap. At one point, I realized I’d stopped breathing, and that I was chewing on my lip as I focused on every movement. It was tough going — the mechanical arm telescoped out and rotated like a folding ladder. I brought Drone a bit lower, reaching the arm out as far as it would go, after which a few feats of agility got Drone into a position where it didn’t touch any of the threads. Finally, I was successful. The claws had reached their objective. Suppressing the urge to grab what I was there for right away, I flew as close as I could to the edge of the field and got down on the same level as the casket. Zooming in elicited a frustrated sniff. The casket was human-made, but whatever was under it was part of the game — it was glowing fit to burst. Assuming the worst, that there was another detonator ready to go off as soon as the weight of the casket resting on it eased off, I began modifying the arm’s claws. Clamps grabbed Squirrel’s impossible dream and fixed it in place while I added something like a circular saw that used pure energy instead of a blade.
I wasn’t about to lift the casket’s lid. My instinct told me there was another detonator under it — whoever had put the explosive maze together was a maniac. And that meant I was going to have to cut right through. The saw dug into its target without meeting any resistance, cutting through the gems as though they were sheets of paper. Two gashes later, I rotated the contraption ninety degrees and finished cutting out the square. Then, I barely jumped when the piece I’d cut out slipped away and dropped like a rock. It was a miracle it didn’t touch anything on the way down, and it landed right on Drone. Once I was sure nothing was going to blow up, I took a deep breath. Damn it, another mistake! Somehow, it hadn’t occurred to me that the piece I’d removed had nowhere to go but down.
Raptor told me the weight of the casket had dropped, though it was being held in place by the arm. As soon as it was released, however, it was going to pop up a couple microns. Got it. But before I tackled that issue, I wanted to know what was in the casket. My camera zoomed all the way in. It was hard to say what I would have done if it hadn’t been for that particular Ulbaron expansion.
There wasn’t much light making its way through the small hole, though it was enough for me to see that I’d been right — there was a few wires attached to the lid. They were triggers that would have detonated mines and kept me from seeing the contents of the casket if I’d tried to open it. But there it was, whatever was inside it right there in front of me. It turned out to be a piece of paper and five cubes the size of dice. Three were dark blue; two were dark green. The arm’s claws once more went through a modification. Another arm and a transporter were added to get my loot to the storage — it didn’t look like the items were dangerous at all, and that meant they could be pulled out.
Everything was simple enough with the dice, though it was tougher going with the piece of paper. The only option was to pull it out, crinkling and tearing it in the process. Once again, Raptor let me know that the casket was lighter than it was, that time the difference more significant. I reached the arm out to the nearest body and tore off a piece of flesh. The player didn’t need it anymore, and it was the only available additional weight. It took two tries before Raptor was satisfied. The cubes had turned out to be awfully heavy.
And then, I froze, holding my breath. I needed to let go of the casket and get Drone out of there, though I couldn’t make myself. A nervous tremor gripped me. I’d been dancing with death for just a few weeks, and my nervous system still hadn’t gotten used to the strain. Ultimately, I had to inject myself with a sedative. It was easy to find, costing just one coin in a first aid kit. My breathing evened out, and I felt better immediately.
I also noted a green glow around the field. When I’d flown down to the level of the casket, I’d been so focused on getting into the thing that I hadn’t paid any attention to the area around me. And that had been a mistake. The space was filled with a heavy gas, and if I’d turned off Ulbaron’s hermetic seal for just a second… It suddenly made sense why I’d gotten so nervous — my subconscious was in a panic even as my consciousness was otherwise occupied. The former had definitely known what was going on.
Creating some distance between myself and the dangerous substance, I had the arm let go of the casket. It pulled back, and…nothing. The weight was the same as it had been, and whatever sensors there were had no problem with what had happened. And a few minutes of careful dancing later, the arm had made its way back through the mess of threads. Drone was finally hovering in front of me. I pulled out the piece of paper.
Greetings, Mark Derwin! I’m glad you took me up on my invitation and beat my simple maze. I’m also glad I was right about your abilities — not everyone is able to progress as quickly as you have in just four weeks. Not only that, but I wasn’t able to find you in the dungeon, and that’s the first time something like that has happened. We could be useful to each other. I’d like to offer you a job. The general and its orders mean nothing to me — its focus is managing and improving the hexagon. And that has nothing to do with me. I couldn’t care less about the owner, either. No, I work for myself and answer only to the game. We could use your help in the next hexagon over — there’s something only a natural player can take care of. Believe me, the pay will be good. If you’re interested in getting even stronger, call this number so we can discuss the details. The attached is a kind of advance. It’ll put you on par with my fighters, and you’ll get much more than that if we decide to work together.
Villian Po, head of the Tsarter mercenary clan
The heavy cubes found their way into my palm, and Raptor went crazy trying to tell me what they were.
Blue explosion. Description: increases the level of named items by 1. Does not work with items lower than level 10 or higher than level 20.
Green explosion. Description: increases the level of named items by 1. Does not work with items lower than level 20 or higher than level 30.
***
Access denied to the store’s named item enhancement section.
I swallowed. Villian was right — with those cubes, I didn’t have to worry about his fighters anymore. At least, I had an even shot at surviving a pitched battle with them. But what does the bastard want with me?
Chapter 19
FLYING AROUND to visit the fallen netted me 4.5 million coins. For whatever reason, they hadn’t had much on them, and even their equipment was just level three and four. Selling it wasn’t that profitable, either. But still, it helped out, as I was able to hand it over to the survivors. Too many of them had transformed back, and there wasn’t enough food for them i
n the area. As the stores had long since lost electricity, the hot southern sun had turned everything in them into a sticky, stinking substance that would have been dangerous to eat. Regardless, everything took time. When I collapsed exhausted in the shade of one of the few trees, the timer told me I had twelve hours left for Olsen’s mission and thirty minutes left in the location. And I still hadn’t gotten to the storage facility the airport was being used as. All I’d done was fly by a few times, and there had always been something to distract me. Still, I’d gotten a good look at the defenses — automatic turrets, mined approaches, and a few rocket launchers. Since everything worked perfectly fine remotely, Five didn’t have to be there in person to keep an eye on its property. Whatever, I’ll save that for later. I knew I’d be back so long as I could survive a day outside the location, or long enough to reset the timer.
Figuring out what to do next was an interesting dilemma. There was no way I was going to call Villian — I’d had enough of deals with the aliens. They couldn’t be trusted. And that made it the perfect time to head off for some noa I could use to beat a dungeon and get the rainbow pearl. But the question there was why. What did I need the pearl for? To give it to Olsen? I’d already decided I wasn’t going to be giving it anything. Sure, the function would slap a penalty on me and spread the word that my sister was alive, but what did that matter? Squirrel was in a capsule. Nobody was going to be finding her. Wart hadn’t been found, either, even though the robots had given it their best shot. My levels were locked in; I didn’t have much money. And so that option was off the table. Give the pearl to Wart? After everything he’d done to my sister? Yeah, right… The bastard needed to die regardless of the fact that he was, or rather had been, human. The only good reason there was for me to go hunting the rainbow pearl was to keep it out of the hands of the general. And that really was occasion enough to keep me in the area for a couple days. From what I’d been able to gather, there was just one pearl in each release. I should make sure I have it. It might come in handy.
That decided it. I wasn’t heading for the city; I was going hunting. But the first thing I needed was to get stronger, which meant it was time to give the cubes their chance to shine.
You used a blue explosion (3).
Valkyrie, Ulbaron, Raptor, and Zelda levels increased by 3 (20).
You reached a threshold for named items. All requirements boosted to 100.
You can’t use your named items, as you don’t meet the requirements.
***
You used a green explosion (2).
Valkyrie, Ulbaron, Raptor, and Zelda levels increased by 2 (22).
Are you kidding me?! I’d been counting on the requirements only jumping to 90. As my confused gaze jumped back and forth between Raptor, which had died, and the phone that had dropped to the ground, I let out a string of curses. Where was my brain?! I’d been so busy leveling up that I’d forgotten the simplest of things: checking the descriptions for my named items. Sure, I didn’t need too many syringes, and I had enough coins to pick them up, but I was worried that I could miss something so elementary. Apparently, I’d thought I was so smart, that I could just hop around, level-up, and there wouldn’t be any problems. What a disaster! It had been a long time since I’d gotten such a cuff upside the head, and it wasn’t anything I could pin the blame on the aliens for.
Yanking myself out of Ulbaron, I praised the heavens that I hadn’t sold the LTS. My armor was dead weight, clearly incapable of flying. And all because of my inattention to detail. My aeronautics attribute was just at 90, which kept me from using Ulbaron. Cartographer (90) was the problem with Raptor, pistol shooting (90) had blocked Valkyrie, and Zelda was complaining about consciousness block (90). They were close, but not close enough — I’d created a problem for myself out of thin air. To make sure that didn’t happen again, I bumped them all up to 100 before materializing the flying vehicle and hurrying out of the location. There was no way I wanted to test out the penalty the game would have given me if I’d overstayed my welcome. I’d seen what it was like.
Ultimately, I flew through the locations with noa plants as fast as I could. From what I understood, that was where they were expecting me, either there, or setting up an ambush for a transporter hauling its valuable cargo to the general. The aliens knew how to boost dungeon levels, and that meant they’d assume I would aim to pick up some noa. Idiots. The rainbow pearl wasn’t going anywhere, and I didn’t need it for anything right then. I didn’t even really feel like sticking it to the general. Without the knife I had in my inventory, the aliens wouldn’t be getting the pearl, and that meant I could forget about it for the moment. Squirrel was a more pressing concern. Finding her was a much better use of my time than crawling around dungeons and sacrificing people. Although, there was something I could do right then, and the aliens weren’t going to like it.
“Yes?”
“Gardine, it’s Mark Derwin. Is Nellie in your location?”
“Where else would she be? She’s already on everyone’s nerves, laying down the law and recruiting half the location. You don’t happen to want to take her somewhere else, do you?”
“I don’t have anywhere else for her to go, though we do need to talk. Hand her the phone.”
“Mark?” A woman’s surprised voice came over the line a couple minutes later. “Five already let you go?”
“They were never going to let me go, but that’s not important. I have the coordinates for three plants pulling the spheres out of our core. As soon as they’re done, Earth will die, and we will, too. They need to be taken out. Can you handle that?”
“I’ll talk with Maximov — call me back in half an hour. So, you’re free?”
“Yes, more or less. Hey, there’s something I’ve been wanting to ask you. How do you take out the monsters’ protection? Normal weapons don’t cut it.”
“HEAT rounds for the small fry, armor-piercing incendiary rounds for the big ones. The treaties don’t apply to the aliens, so we pulled all that out of storage. What do you care?”
“Just interested. Okay, I’ll call you back in half an hour. Over and out.”
The LTS headed due north, although I did end up easing a bit to the northeast to make sure I gave Verloven’s safe location a wide berth. Coming across the function was the last thing I needed — I didn’t have the noa I’d promised it. And I probably wasn’t going to get it any time soon. Well, that’s another penalty. But screw it! They weren’t going to kill me. I figured I might lose levels or coins, but what else were they going to do? Take my named items away? I wasn’t able to use them anyway…
Or was there a problem?
Honestly, I was worried. While Olsen had forced me to accept its mission, and so I didn’t expect the punishment to be too bad, Verloven was a different story. The game was quite capable of coming after me for breaking my promise. But where am I going to find him some noa?
An interesting idea hit me, and it even occupied me so completely that I forgot to keep an eye on where my aerial vehicle was taking me for a little while. There wasn’t anything I could do in that location. But nobody’s expecting me in the next one over! They didn’t even know I existed over there. It was a four-hour flight, and the Tsarter map I had told me it was home to three noa plants. One of them wasn’t far from the border.
I banked sharply. Yes, that’s a great idea! It was time to get Grust back. Thinking about my partner came with a twinge of conscience — some people didn’t really have any luck at all. He’d lost everything when the game launched, and then he’d found his girl, only to lose her again. He’d even died three times, once only because of dumb luck. But still, he’d held onto his humanity, sacrificing himself to bring me back. What a heroic gesture. And I’d just accepted it, not once even thanking him.
Gardine’s call came when I was halfway to the hexagon border. Lost in my thoughts, I’d forgotten about the troops.
“You were supposed to call back half an hour ago!” Nellie started in.
> “How about a thank you for answering?”
“You made Maximov wait. That’s a slap in the face to our leader!”
“What did you expect? He sold me to the aliens!”
“And saved millions of lives in the process,” a second voice chimed in. It was powerful, masculine, familiar. The voice of the person who’d sent me to my death.
“You wouldn’t have saved anyone if it hadn’t been for me,” I replied, getting angrier. “Five only stopped the attack because I got away and attracted all their attention. But no, I heard it talk about how it was never planning on following through on its end of the deal. It — ”
“You’re mistaken,” the general replied evenly. “That’s just your emotions talking. We got the result we were looking for almost immediately — the attacks stopped, and that let us get the civilians out of harm’s way. And there’s still nobody attacking us, which is how we’ve been able to pick up another two locations.”
I took a deep breath. Arguing with soldiers whose minds were already made up clearly wasn’t a gift of mine. If they wanted to think it was all because of the aliens’ nobility, that was their right. I washed my hands of it. The hexagon was nearly behind me, after all.
Pearl of the South (World of the Changed Book #2): LitRPG Series Page 25