by Scar, Rick
“From shade to dust!” The answer, given by all adepts at once, resounded through the abode. Everyone who was near the hall at the moment stopped for a while, raising a fist to greet the newly joined member.
Lifting his glass to everyone, Raven took a sip. Good enough it’s just wine.
Chapter 116. Hidden in the Shadows
A fter joining the Shadow Order, Will spent a while in the library, pondering over his latest challenge. The reward description said his golden dragon form increased his skill of locating hidden things by 10%. He hoped that would suffice in discovering the hidden secret here.
What stopped him from trying this immediately was the price. A hundred gold.
Will never went in for gambling. The very concept of spending real money for a false chance of winning seemed ridiculous to him. But this chance of winning was not false, so he did not dismiss this idea right away.
After a brief discussion with himself, he activated his monster form, setting the time limit at 60 seconds.
His body crunched, covering itself with golden scales. Looking at them, Will saw the real money he spent. He took some comfort in knowing this gold was not going down the drain, and his spending was meaningful… or at least he hoped it was. His limbs transformed into mighty clawed paws. His head stretched, growing dragon jaws.
Browsing his skill tree, Will had seen the description of the form he’d been in during the challenge. It was unlocked at the fifth stage only—there was a long way to go.
His tail spread on the floor, twitching like a living thing. As Raven realized soon, this tail was useful not only as a weapon, but also as a metal detector.
It twitched and dashed sideways as though responding to hidden secrets around him. Will used it to eventually locate the hideout, and the lever that opened it.
Back to his normal form after the time had expired, Will slapped himself on the forehead. Searching this place the last time, he’d felt all the walls, corners, floor, and shelves—but he had totally forgotten to check the books! He only had to pull one to open the hideout.
Will did that at once and heard a muffled sound. A door had opened. Glancing around, he tried to guess the direction, but he hadn’t come up with any ideas and ended up just searching the whole library…
…eventually discovering what he was after.
There was a small lid in the floor in the far corner, next to a small statue portraying a man pointing down his spear, its sharp head about a feet short of reaching the floor. Completely invisible before, this lid had had now slid aside. Coming closer, the rogue discerned a small box inside the hole.
Opening the box, he discovered… a small bag of golden coins and a plain ring with a pyramid-shaped diamond. That must have been the reward, but something was wrong. This reward seemed too modest for such a complicated hideout, and…
Five minutes later, he realized what exactly was wrong about it. No system message! That was really weird, prompting Raven to continue his search rather than leave with the small loot he’d received.
Revelation Sphere.
This skill removed the illusion at once. The bottom of the empty box now had another door.
Using such small trophies to distract me was a mistake, Will smirked, stooping to pull the handle.
It took him some time to realize what happened next. At first, he only saw the spearhead coming out of his mouth and the figure:
- 10 000!
The spear returned to its previous position at once. Rescued by his Leased Life skill, restoring his health to 20%, Raven jumped away from the statue.
Holy crap. Will was trying to regain his senses. When he would next try to open the door, the mortal trap would work again, unless…
Waiting for the Leased Life skill to cool down, Will made another attempt. This time he lay down on the floor and, reaching for the hideout, found the handle by groping. His head, and the rest of his body, were outside the estimated reach of the trap.
“That’s it, you fucking japer,” Will grumbled, watching for any changes in the statue.
The door started to open… and the rogue felt sick. The stone man opened his eyes and, quickly glancing around, struck Will’s head with lightning speed.
- 10 000!
The damage came to Raven before he could roll away, reducing his health to 20% again. With mounting annoyance, he applied Inspection.
Name: Golem Trap
Type: Fixed
There was no further description, but Will had already figured out a couple of things. This golem responded only to the door being opened and landed just one lethal blow. The missing part was his cooldown time.
Waiting for his life-saving skill to be restored once again, Will started his next experiment, itching to know what could be guarded by such a complicated trap. Getting struck, he activated his clone who died a moment later when trying to open the door.
“So he has no cooldown. And kills everyone who takes a look inside. No problem then.” Raven smiled broadly. With restored Leased Life, he squatted next to the hole and, activating his Through a Wall skill, he reached his hand through the hard surface.
The result was worth his spent influence points. The golem did not move. Groping hastily inside the hideout, Will discovered…
Another lever? Without any further thought, he pulled it. The golem statue slid away, opening a narrow underground passage.
Gosh. WHAT is hidden in there? He immediately started along the narrow passage. The air gradually became cleaner, more pleasant to breathe. After a two-minute walk, he reached a door, a blazing oil lamp over it sending a soft orange glow around.
How could this lamp still be working? If only by magic.
The door was a stone block, smooth but for a round hole in the middle. Will had no idea what kind of a key could fit there.
His intuition was silent. The Revelation Sphere produced no hints, making him use his specialization again in the hope of discovering anything, but that failed too. 100 gold coins just wasted.
Will sat down in front of the door, going over the possible solutions. If he left without solving the riddle, all the money he’d already spent would be in vain.
There were no system messages to give any explanations. The cloaking illusion, if there was any, must have been at Grandmaster level or higher. There were no signs of any levers or hidden buttons—either this place had none or discovering them required higher search skills than his.
He could level his golden dragon skills right away. One of those had the name of Dragon Intuition; each skill point spent would increase it by 2% or expand its range. However, Will was not going to spend any points blindly, without knowing exactly what level of skill he needed to reveal this secret.
His other option was finding a key. A round key, however odd that may sound. Thinking about it, he remembered the item he already had, a round one of matching size.
The compass.
Raven retrieved it instantly and, weighing it on his palm, he put it into the hole. The compass fit it perfectly and started to vibrate.
The rogue expected the way to open, but the result was different. The compass projected a dense web of wry lines all over the stone wall. These dark lines looked like they had been painted by a small child who got their hands on a crayon for the first time.
Will remembered the rhymed description of the compass.
There is a secret shadow path.
Shadow path? That must refer to the Shadow Order. But how could its founder know in advance the order would re-locate here from their past abode? If only… this place has always been their home. The main or the reserve one.
So, the secret shadow path that brought me here. What’s next?
It’s there, alright, but not in sight.
“If I didn’t have the compass, I’d have spent the rest of my days guessing the solution. Although it’s right there.” The rogue winced, disturbing the silence with his voice.
A simple thing holds simple math
This line
must refer to the compass, just like the past one.
Just look at it through the light
What is this supposed to mean?
Will pondered over the last line, eventually concluding that it must be some metaphor. Examining the lines projected by the compass, he saw nothing but strange dark shapes with no recognizable form. He even tried watching them from different angles, but that made no sense either.
Just look at it through the light. At it. If ‘it’ refers to the compass, how can I look at it through the light? This line was so confusing. Will took the lamp (the only available source of light here) off its hook to peer at the stone wall through its flames…
…and saw a painted door.
The rogue withdrew from the blazing light right away, but still the wry lines were before his eyes.
“So that’s it,” the rogue drawled, lifting the lamp to his eyes again. The door looked so realistic as if it were ready to open at a slight push. But Will knew better than to push solid stone.
“How am I to open it? Wait. If I can only see it in the light, then…”
Taking two steps back, Will swung the lamp broadly to smash it on the wall. The flames flashed up bright, licking the spilled oil. The compass sent rippling waves all around, transforming stone into the very door that Will had seen before.
Who could ever think the item that had been idle from the very start would become a key to… To what?
Pushing the door, he froze on spot, too scared to move.
Standing in the middle of a large cave illumined by numerous bolts of lightning was a ten-foot stone slab, with small, sparkling creatures flying in the air around it as though bathing in this abnormal thunderstorm.
Attention! You’re entering a dangerous zone!
In this area, you can experience terrible pain by strokes of lightning. Your sensitivity level is 100%. Think really, really well before proceeding.
“The tablet?”
Chapter 117. Trapped!
C ongratulations! You have discovered an unexplored area.
+25 Influence points
+6% XP in this area for 24 hours
+5% In-battle regeneration for 5 hours
To pass through these bolts of lightning painlessly, Will needed 240 Strength. He relaxed a bit, realizing he actually had that.
He could put on the wild thunder bracelets to nullify any damage from lightning. He also had the twilight ring and the golden dragon form increasing his Strength from 215 to 244. So the question was: did he want to sacrifice money to start on the legendary hero’s challenge? Or would it better to level up and then come back?
The more Will thought about it, the more he wanted to take the challenge. But that meant he’d have to stay in the golden dragon form for a really long time, spending all his money. Or he would die by a stroke of lightning more than once.
And he had no idea what would happen when he finally reached the tablet.
After another discussion with himself, Will decided to check this out to plan his further actions with greater accuracy. To do that, he activated Prince Arrey’s locket for the first time since he’d received it. The long cooldown period of this item made the rogue use it sparingly.
Scrolling his inventory once again, Will started to transform. The ring expanded, adjusting for his finger, since he retained his rogue class in the dragon form, and his body shape was fairly humanoid.
Crouching low and wasting no more time, the golden dragon dashed for the tablet like a racing sprinter. The faster he reached it, the more gold he would save.
The bolts of lightning struck him again and again like bestial claws, but his bracelets worked as lightning rods, absorbing all their energy and preventing any damage to Will.
Ten seconds.
Tensing every muscle on his legs, Raven pushed off and ran through this branching dance of raging death. An incredibly thick bolt of lightning suddenly hit the ground next to him; the blast sent the rogue flying aside, reducing his health:
- 140
The impact was so strong, Will rolled on the ground for a few moments on. The defense provided by his titles and gear had reduced the damage, but he was still stunned, his head swimming. Losing his bearings, he shook his head, trying to regain them. That was a gap in his plan, the thing he’d missed. The powerful blasts from strokes of lightning were a real threat, but Will had no time for regret and self-reproach. Coming to, he resumed his race for the tablet that was getting closer and closer.
- 185
Another stroke in front of the golden dragon tossed him back. Somersaulting for a while and sustaining more damage, Will stood up, all his thoughts on reaching the tablet as fast as he could. Running straight was not the best tactic; to minimize the blast damage, he weaved his way across the cave.
Thirty seconds.
His speed and winding trajectory finally took him to his destination. Standing in front of the tablet, Will refrained from touching it: this move could initiate another task or challenge—or it could wake some monstrous guards as it often did elsewhere in this game. So, he just briefly examined the tablet.
Ten feet tall, it had a painted hexagon with words in ancient language swimming around. The words emitted a faint glow and a humming sound resembling a drumbeat; it reached Will’s ears through the peals of thunder and lightning strokes.
The hexagon was separated into six sectors, a different kind of weapon placed in each: sword, axe, bow, staff, shield, and dagger. The weapons moved in a circle, in the opposite direction to the words, producing the same faint glow.
Will’s brain worked with lightning speed in such cases. He grabbed the dagger at once.
Good enough he knew whose tablet it was—and what weapon this hero used to have—so he didn’t have to choose through guesswork or pick the dagger as appropriate for his class. Any warrior, wizard, or archer in his place would have probably faced disastrous consequences if selecting a class-appropriate weapon. The dagger was the only correct choice.
Attention! You have discovered the tablet left by Demonic Lord Zal’Sscar.
You have started a legendary (out of levels) quest chain “A Successor to Heroes”!
Find as many tablets as you can to receive the power of legendary heroes who lived before the world was separated. The challenges awaiting you are extremely difficult. You will need to use all the powers and abilities you have.
Remember! The power of heroes can separate the heavens. Only one ready for challenges can approach it even by a single step.
Prove your worth!
Use all you have!
Your hesitation is death. Doubt is death. Weakness is death.
Rewards:
A hint at another tablet location;
??;
??;
??
Note: The exact reward will depend on many things, from your player level to the game sensitivity level.
Accept: Yes/No?
Why else would I come here?
Getting Will’s agreement, the system activated the tablet. The tiny creatures flying in the strokes of lightning came together to form a sparkling female figure, roughly as tall as the tablet. She seemed to consist of pure lightning. When she spoke, a peal of thunder accompanied her every word.
“So long after… you came at last.” The gaps of her eyes glared with dazzling light, a red bolt of lightning flashing across them every second. “You are young and weak, but you dared to accept my challenge. A fool or a hero? These two things often come together, don’t they?”
“Zal’Sscar?” Will was astonished—he had always thought of this hero as male.
“Ummm. You know my name. I didn’t hope the merciless machinery of Time would leave any of my traces unwiped.”
“I’m really glad to meet you. But can we start the challenge?” Still in his golden dragon form, Will would rather not waste any time talking.
“You have too much confidence. Do you think you’ll pass it easily? Ahahaha. Do you even know why my name is preceded b
y Demonic Lord?”
“Er.” The rogue hadn’t actually given it any thought. “I’m ready to take your challenge! I beg you, Great Hero, to test me!” There is no time for discussions. Not when his gold was streaming away through his fingers with literally every second.
“Well, messenger. You’ll have it. A violent fight with a much stronger enemy… enemies. Now prove your courage.” The maiden waved a hand, summoning a demonic lion to face the rogue.
“Wait!” Will screamed in panics, his heart pounding. “D-do we have to fight here? Aren’t you transporting me anywhere?”
“Why? You wanted a challenge. Here you are. Kill them all! All! Each single one. And if you give up, NEVER DARE COME TO ME AGAIN!” Her thundering voice seemed to be tearing the very fabric of space. The floor beneath Raven’s feet shook so badly it was as though the cave were collapsing.
Attention. Restrictions apply to this challenge. If you leave it by choice, or die before reaching the minimal challenge level, you will not be able to try it again.
No, no, no! NO! Will trembled all over as he read that. His back broke into cold sweat. Why didn’t they state it beforehand? What the crap?
He’d have to remain in the golden dragon form throughout the challenge.
The rogue’s heart pounded against his ribs like a trapped wild lion, his mind in prostration. The very thought of inevitably losing ALL his gold clutched him like in giant pincers, confusing his mind.
Almost 11,000 gold!
If he were in the real world, he’d probably have had his nose bleeding or even fainted.
“What have I done?” Will was shocked at facing a challenge literally expropriating all of his savings. Not even a challenge but an act of gambling where he had to put all of his money against a ghostly chance.
The current exchange rate of game gold to USD was 1:3. Remembering that, Will shook all over at realizing how much real money he was losing.