Tears of Alron (The Alchemist Book #3): LitRPG Series

by Vasily Mahanenko

  Suddenly, he remembered his first encounter with Forian. The mage had used some kind of flying device to let himself down into the hole where Tailyn had been sitting. And it couldn’t have been something generally accessible — the boy’s mentor would have bought it if that had been the case. Apparently, it was time for a trip to the store.

  Talarii. Description: expansion for Vargot. Winged sandals that let you move vertically in space. Maximum altitude: Vargot level (VL) * 10 meters. Maximum weight: VL * 50 kilograms. Maximum flight speed: VL meters per minute. Integrate with Pegasus for horizontal flight. Requirements: Coordination (20).

  ***

  Coordination. Description: an attribute that lets you perform incredible feats of physical dexterity. When falling from a height of Coordination meters, the impact is completely blocked.

  Tailyn ended up spending another twenty crystals so he could use the expansion. On the outside, Talarii looked like four flimsy wings that attached to his feet on different sides without keeping him from walking. They were activated by a button in the status bar, an additional panel popping up with a variety of settings. After going with the minimum speed, the maximum stability, and an altitude of two meters, Tailyn gave the wings a try. To his surprise, they didn’t actually flap, instead just lifting his feet off the ground and carrying him into the air. That was where coordination came in handy. It was fairly easy to control his body standing on a hard surface, but lifting it into the air was enough to lose all control. The boy’s body stiffened, he felt like he was about to fall, he made unsteady moves, and his arms... They were a pair of windmills living lives of their own as they tried to find absolutely anything to grab hold of. An hour later, Tailyn was starting to take off and land confidently. Of course, he did have to practice next to the wall, giving him something to grab hold of in case anything went wrong, though the result was worth it. He found himself up next to the hole without a problem.

  Yes, the investment had been worth it.

  The narrow tunnel changed direction several times. Starting horizontal, it broke suddenly upward only to once again turn parallel to the ground. All Tailyn could do was frown in surprise and keep going. And just when he was starting to wonder if the tunnel would ever end, Raptor showed him the outlet into the open air.

  Tailyn peeked out of the hole and checked his map. He was half a kilometer from the gully. At some point, the server room had enjoyed a fearsome security system — the whole tunnel had been lined with bars and barriers. Or what remained of them, at least. Just as had been the case with the metro, three thousand years had left nothing but dust in their wake.

  The outlet was right in the middle of a cliff. Tailyn wiggled himself around to let his feet out first, activating Talarii. And the wings came through for him — he began letting himself down carefully, keeping one hand on the cliff. But ten meters off the ground, he stopped. Why was he going down? Was he looking to run into the lixes, the night monsters, or Berad’s people? They were going to be expecting an attack from the ground, not the air.

  Deactivating his dragon, which had found a spot on his shoulder, Tailyn pulled himself along the cliff. Vargot’s expansion held him up beautifully, and the most challenging part was maintaining his balance as he pushed himself forward. He wasn’t able to fly horizontally yet.

  “Why does the commander think he’s going to come crawling out? He’s probably dead already down there! And our guys are standing guard, too.” Tailyn heard the annoyed mutters long before the red dots showed up on Raptor. Two mercenaries were right where the mages had been killed, and the boy’s breathing picked up — all he wanted to do was shoot the bastards. And that would have been easy enough. As soon as his gaze fell on them, numbers appeared all over their bodies. Valkyrie had integrated with perception and marksmanship, showing the chances of a lethal strike depending on where he hit. The hundred percent values were around the head and chest, the stomach a tad lower. And Tailyn’s marksmanship told him a hit to an arm or leg would only give him a thirty percent chance of getting the kill.

  But he didn’t take the shot. Tailyn already knew how tricky Berad could be, and he suspected the two were there as a decoy. If the boy lost his mind and attacked, he’d find himself in the crosshairs.

  But whose crosshairs? Tailyn dropped lower and tried to stay as close to the wall as he could, not looking to raise the bandits’ suspicions. After he was sure they hadn’t noticed anything, he headed higher, and that was when a new red dot appeared on Raptor. It was right at the top of the mountain, overlooking the whole area. Hidden among the rocks with a crossbow aimed in the direction of the mumbling pair, Bolar was lying motionless. It was the same mercenary that had taken Valia. Tailyn wasn’t sure, but he had to assume the darkness wasn’t a problem for him, otherwise the ambush would have been pointless. Presumably, Bolar had some kind of scanner that made peeking out from behind the rocks out of the question. Tailyn needed a different strategy.

  Attempting to hack Bolar Mileon.

  Your Hacking level: 40.

  Bolar Mileon’s protection level: 30.

  Probability of successful hack: 100%.

  Attempt 1… Successful.

  You gained access to Bolar Mileon’s equipment.

  The first thing Tailyn did was block his armor, turning it into stone and turning off all audio. There was no resistance — while the armor was level three, the killer was clearly unprepared for a simple hack. Of course, initializing cleansing was out of the question, but the block untied Tailyn’s hands. He was able to peer out from behind the rocks, no longer afraid of catching a crossbow bolt to the face. Although, it probably wouldn’t have been able to cut through Vargot...

  Bolar wheezed as he tried to force his armor to move. Never having dealt with a hack before, he wasn’t sure what to do about it, his normally comfortable outfit suddenly having turned rigid and unpleasant. His back itched; he needed to relieve himself. And while he could see Tailyn was the one responsible for his problems, he couldn’t even warn the others — group communications were turned off. Just like everything else.

  Tailyn got to where the man was lying and looked around. It was getting much lighter — while the sun rose very late at that time of year in the Gray Lands, the boy had taken quite a while working with the crystals. It had been almost twelve hours since his mentors had been killed. Pulling out Matilda, Tailyn took aim at the body lying on the rocks. He felt no pity. No hatred, either. It was a simple choice — kill or be killed. They both knew what they were getting themselves into.

  The mercenary died fighting back as hard as he could. It took a few strikes for Tailyn to take out his personal shield, though the sharp end of the staff did eventually bury itself in Bolar’s chest. With too many opponents around to think about wasting bolts, Tailyn wasn’t about to give Valkyrie a try.

  Loot received:

  Gold +2902 (32487).

  Coins +477 (118037).

  Complete ranger outfit-III.

  Booster-III amulet.

  Agility-III ring x 5.

  Crossbow-II.

  Access received to logs.

  Access received to personal information.

  Marauder level insufficient to receive access to personal inventory (required: 64).

  There was plenty of loot — Berad outfitted his troops well. The problem, however, was that it was all manmade, which Tailyn couldn’t sell it for coins. The boy scowled. With his marauder attribute at level sixty, he needed to eat just four crystals to gain access to his opponents’ inventory after he killed them. And that struck him as critically important. It was even strange that he hadn’t thought of it sooner.

  But he wasn’t able to fix that misunderstanding right away. A bright star soared into the sky, where it hung in the air, turning the predawn gloom into something akin to daylight. The bandit commander had seen that his soldier was dead and leaped into action. Putting aside the question of loot, Tailyn dropped to the ground and prepared for battle — the position Bolar had found w
as perfect. The highest point for several hundred meters, nobody was going to get anywhere near it without Tailyn knowing. His gaze fell on the pair of bandits as they looked around in confusion. Neither of them had been aware that they’d been the bait. Valkyrie popped out, and a deadly blade was sent flying. In that moment, Tailyn realized why the clips were so expensive — the enchanted metal ignored personal shields as though they weren’t even there. A hole right through the mercenary’s head appeared as the bolt shot in and out of him, burying itself deep in the rock.

  There were twenty-three human enemies remaining.

  “He’s on the mountain! Go!” Berad yelled. The mercenary leader was by the camp, far enough away to be out of range. As he barked orders to his team, he also let the lixes know where they could find the boy. But Valkyrie had reloaded in the meantime, and Tailyn finished off the second mercenary. He’d figured he would be safe hiding behind a rock. The bolt thought otherwise, hurtling through both the rock and the mercenary. The weapon was fearsome.

  Another bright star shot into the sky — one of the shamans was using a special card. At the same moment, a horde of lixes headed by Dur-Sha-Gun dashed off toward the mountain. Tailyn looked around for a spot to retreat to just in case, but that was when he noticed some movement in the gully. Ten bandits were sprinting over to some ropes so they could climb the mountain and finish off the boy. Suddenly, Valkyrie jerked, and Tailyn saw a large red circle centered on the killers. A grenade. The crossbow was suggesting he fire a grenade off at them. And Tailyn wasn’t about to argue. Holding up the weapon, he noticed another circle appear, that one green and moving to wherever he pointed Valkyrie. He found to his surprise that he needed to point the weapon up in the air in order to bring the green and red circles together. Never having come across anything like that, he’d always thought you just pointed weapons directly at the target. But the boy wasn’t about to argue, either, instead pulling the trigger as soon as the circle blinked. The red flask tumbled through the air as it flew off on a collision course with the seven bandits.

  The explosion shook the mountain. Four opponents were down, and a fifth was injured to the point that he wouldn’t be doing any fighting in the coming hours. As soon as his crossbow reloaded, Tailyn turned toward the onrushing lixes, though it was his turn for an unpleasant surprise.

  When Valkyrie pointed at Dur-Sha-Gun, Tailyn’s marksmanship came up with exactly zero percent. No matter where he aimed, either at the lizard or the lix, the result was the same. A chill ran down his spine. If a level seven named weapon couldn’t do anything about the monster coming at him, he might as well just throw up his hands. And he did freeze for a few moments, not sure of what to do until another red circle appeared in from of the running lixes. The boy’s hand went to work on its own, bringing the green circle over it and waiting for the blink. The elixir soared into the air. And that was when Tailyn shook himself.

  Why was he so discouraged? Sure, he couldn’t take out Dur-Sha-Gun. But that was a fact better forgotten than remembered. He hadn’t been able to do anything about the gray-clad intruder in the academy cellars, either, had he? But he had done something about him, hadn’t he? Part of the boy’s consciousness headed off into virtual reality to call on the blizzard. It responded immediately — winds kicked up around the smithy, somehow managing to avoid Valia’s choreography hall. But without the girl, the snow couldn’t find any harmony, just whirling around in the powerful blizzard. Virtual Tailyn dashed over to the virtual wall and began smashing at it with a sledgehammer in an attempt to get through to Valia and wake her up — he needed her to make the terrible magic that didn’t require cards. Back in reality, that Tailyn just about clapped himself on the forehead when he realized how ridiculous he was being. Why spend invaluable ammo when he had magic in his arsenal?

  Valia hadn’t had time to make enough ice rains to boost the card level, so Tailyn was stuck at level one. Shuffling through his deck, he picked a point a hundred meters away from the wall. That was when the explosion went off. The grenade had reached its target and sent the lixes flying like paper dolls, even hitting the advisor’s lizard hard. In fact, the potion had activated right under it, the shock wave throwing it to the side. And while there wasn’t any visible damage, that wasn’t the important part. It was enough that the lixes had been slowed down. Tailyn was in no hurry to get into a close-combat fight.

  Boo.

  The five seconds it took to activate the card felt like an eternity. The lizard got to its feet, shook its head, and ran off again in the direction of the mountain, wobbling just a little. And it had gotten about halfway there when the heavens opened to pour icy rain down on the ground. Before using the card, Tailyn had even polished off a magic enhancement elixir — every point of damage was critical. Not expecting that kind of attack, the brigade of forty-two lixes was wiped out almost instantly. All that remained a few seconds later were the five shamans, all of which had used yeti potions. For his part, the advisor paid no attention to the icicles, instead continuing his relentless charge, and Tailyn had to pull himself away from the menacing opponent to check the gully. There were still bandits over there looking to do him harm. He needed to finish them off. Another five seconds later, and one more barrage of icy rain burst from the heavens to bathe the mountain.

  The lizard disappeared from view as the advisor got to the base of the mountain. But that wasn’t for long — just a few moments had gone by when the nimble creature’s massive hulk landed heavily on the stone, having scaled the sheer cliff. Less than thirty meters separated Tailyn from the advisor. Neither of them could miss at that distance. Valkyrie sprang into action, sending a useless bolt in the direction of the enemy — marksmanship was still showing zero percent damage. With the flash of a small sun, the metal slammed into the advisor’s protection and disappeared. The lix’s Vargot had blocked both the shot and its impact.

  Laughing, the advisor pulled out a tube and blew it at the boy. Cupidon, Dur-Sha-Gun’s personal weapon, fired arrows that both poisoned and froze their target. Of course, they had their downside — the lix had to get within thirty-five meters. But the result was always the same, the victim turning into a mummy. Cupidon had never let the lix down, and he didn’t expect it to then.

  There was a burst of sparks, and the poisoned dart glanced off to the side. While the boy’s personal shield wouldn’t have stopped it, Vargot stood tall. And that wasn’t a surprise — level seven named weapons couldn’t overmatch level seven named armor.

  Attempting to hack Dur-Sha-Gun.

  Your Hacking level: 40.

  Dur-Sha-Dun’s protection level: 70.

  Probability of successful hack: 10%.

  Attempt 1… Unsuccessful.

  Howling wildly, the lizard charged, though Tailyn didn’t even twitch. All he did was reach into his inventory to materialize his very own alchemical invention. After the duel with Ronan, he and Valia had spent long hours thinking up a way to take out hydras and other creatures immune to magic. The Nemean lion was another example, of course. And the result of their brainstorming sessions was a new bomb made up of an accelerated growth potion and an oak seedling. Both were wrapped up together in a waterproof cloth to make sure not a single drop of the valuable liquid got out. To activate the bomb, Tailyn had to crush the glass container and hurl it immediately at his target. Waiting so much as a second would have had disastrous consequences, or at least that was the theory. The boy hadn’t had time to try out his invention.

  But the moment was at hand.

  It took the lizard a few seconds to traverse the final thirty meters. Fearsome fangs flashed, and it took enormous strength of will for Tailyn to stand in place, though his bladder did eventually betray him. It was terrifying. Needles probed his stomach; his vision darkened. But he didn’t move.

  There was one more meter left. The lizard opened its mouth wide enough to swallow the small mage, and that was when Tailyn jumped into action. Valanil would have been proud — it was during the workouts wit
h her that he’d achieved mastery over his body. The boy’s fist squeezed shut, the glass broke, and the improvised bomb went flying into the creature’s mouth. At the same time, Tailyn leaped a good four meters to the side.

  He wasn’t able to completely avoid the confrontation — the lizard’s tail had a mind of its own. After landing on his feet, Tailyn was sent flying once again, that time by the powerful blow to his chest. While Vargot was able to handle the damage, it wasn’t able to completely absorb the impact, and that was what knocked the boy backwards. The lizard whirled around to charge its impudent target only to suddenly freeze. The advisor dug its heels into the beast in an attempt to get it going again, but nothing worked. A second went by. Another. A third. The lizard was statuesque, not even its eyes moving. It was like it was listening to its own sensations, unable to understand what was going on. Dur-Sha-Gun gave it another kick in the ribs, but just then a new force lifted the lix and sent him flying upward. A tree was growing out of the back of the lizard. Quickly reacting to the turn of events, the advisor leaped forward, slipping off a branch, landing softly on the ground, and looking back in surprise at what had once been his companion. It had a level seven shield which theoretically meant it wasn’t supposed to die, but something incredible was happening. It was just a good thing the summon card was epic. If it had been legendary like Halas’, it would have had far fewer charges.