“You think I should?” I asked in surprise and, mocking Miltay, continued. “Look here, you play for a profit with minimum effort. Rating, reviews – it’s all nonsense when we are talking about hundred of kilograms of gold. If it were really so bad as you are saying, players would get rid of granises at the first opportunity. But no – everyone is trying to get them. Right?”
“Right, wrong, quit acting like a parrot,” grumbled Miltay. “Did you pay for the Dungeon or for free lessons? I don’t recall being hired as your nanny. You could have thanked for us for shedding some light into your stupid head. Anyway, I’ll just add one thing: one granis will always be attracted to another. Later you’ll find out for yourself how things work. Here, look, the passage stops after the second cave. That critter was sitting under the ground and waiting for us. I take it Tomcat flushed it out, so it rushed forward. So then, look here, it’s simpler to shoot ourselves right here. Or shall we go fight some more? Think, commander.”
“What’s to think about?” I was not sure what the catch was. “Let’s go on.”
“Good, fine. So, how are you going to get out from under that pile? I don’t have no lifting jack with me.”
The stone that pressed down on me would not budge no matter how much I jerked my leg. Both mercenaries tried to roll it aside, but failed. I was really pinned in place.
“Look here, that’s what I’m talking about – what do we do? We can’t pull you out; if we leave you here, we breach the contract. Want to go on – I’ll have to cut your leg off. But I’ll just have to cut if off as it is‒ I have no painkillers. Afterwards we’ll put the ointment on it.”
“So cut!” I said angrily a minute later. There was no way we could move the stone – it would not budge no matter what we did. Even a lever made of pieces of chitin cracked, failing to move my trap even an iota.
I didn’t have to ask Miltay twice. He pulled out a huge machete and aimed at my thing with competence. Looking at his face I felt queasy. Hell, who did I make a deal with?!
“So, look here, no offense – you asked for it yourself. I hope your armor is simple enough. Yari, has it been a long time since you got some booty?”
“What? What boo…” I did not get the question, then screamed “AAAAA!” and, thanks to my still dim consciousness, blacked out again. The armor was quite strong, and, despite all his ardor, Miltay wasn’t able to cut my leg completely with one blow. He cut about half way through. I did not remember what happened next.
“Want it for a souvenir?” I regained consciousness, covered in cold sweat. Even though there was no pain, its phantom still loomed close, making me shudder in horror. Grinning Miltay threw the remnants of my leg extracted from under the stone at me. “You pull Burst, Rast and I go first. Forward!”
Crawling along I did not lag too far behind the mercenaries. I had to work with my hands and teeth, grabbing onto everything that happened along. In addition, I managed to pull Burst along on sort of a rope sled, using my stumps, and listened to the quiet conversation of the two walking ahead.
“Here!” The lead of the mercenaries turned around, lay on his back, extracted a jackhammer from his inventory and started working on the ceiling of the passage. Rast helped by removing the dust and crushed stone using an industrial vacuum cleaner. Once the hole was big enough that he could stand, Miltay rose and took out a radar.
“Here they are, our dears! The whole cave troop gathered near the breach. Yari, pull Burst over here!”
As soon as the ear-shattering noise from the jackhammer and vacuum cleaner stopped, we could clearly hear the staccato of hundreds of “hammers” right above our heads. The crabs could easily hear us and were impatiently awaiting our visit. Deciding that the mercenaries knew what they were doing, I did not ask them any questions. Even our invalid smiled, knowing full well where we were dragging him. After several testy jokes he uncomplainingly took the wires that were extended to him in his teeth and then Rast performed, basically, a miracle. A huge warhead appeared from the personal inventory of our player responsible for the force dome! Those guys were just maniacs!
“Look here, that’s a mini beauty,” Miltay said lovingly. “Almost a kiloton. Come on, dear, don’t let us down.”
The warhead was placed vertically and Rast started tying Burst to it. After finishing that, he attached to the bomb the wires extending from the cripple’s mouth. Cold shivers ran down my spine and my instincts nearly forced me to rush back into the first cave: Burst had become a living detonator. While he clenched his teeth together, we would stay alive, but as soon as he opened his mouth, the mini-beauty would evaporate everything within twenty meters.
“Don’t you worry, we are afraid ourselves,” Miltay grinned, seeing my reaction. He extracted a large bag from his inventory and pulled out of it a huge mess of plastic explosive and detonators. “Catch that! Attach those to the ceiling. We need to close this hole.”
I was starting to like this. The mercenaries had found out that getting to the crabs directly was impossible, and decided to do it in a different way: simply obliterate them. Well, that way would not provide any loot, but we’d pass through the second cave and be able to see the Dungeon boss. One should not discount the experience, either: I expected there would be enough for at least a couple of levels. Turning over onto my back with a grunt, I followed orders, starting to turn the passage into a hanging minefield.
“…you’ll get a second, no more.” As I finished with the charges and returned to the group, I heard the end of Rast’s instruction. “If you blow it up yourself, you get the experience, if you croak from the explosions, you get nothing. And, if you open your stupid mouth too early – I’ll personally stuff your balls into it. Got that?”
“Mmm,” Burst responded, settling more comfortably in his ropes.
“Excellent. Retreat!”
Using wounded fighters as living detonators was one of Miltay’s favorite tactics. A nuclear charge would detonate practically in ninety percent of all Dungeons; it was getting the signal to it that was the problem. Differences in the physical processes in different worlds, blockage by debris or interference from some jamming force fields… every time something non-standard happened that required immediate action from an actual live player. Miltay did not like risks, so practically all of his fighters had been through this act of ritual suicide. Twenty meters of stone debris that was supposed to form once we activated the explosives we placed in the passage were supposed to reduce the shock wave to a tolerable level. The rest would be absorbed by the force dome. Due to the hole we had made in the ceiling, the main impact would be directed upwards, turning crabs into crab spread on the walls and, if we were lucky, it would also damage the final boss pretty well. The mercenaries ignored minor side effects such as radiation sickness: elves’ ointment would help us survive the first few moments after the explosion even if we were to be falling into pieces on our feet; then, after respawn, we would come back to normal anyway.
We retreated to the point where we entered the Dungeon: the cave that was furthest from the epicenter.
“ I hate y’all,” having activating the protection dome, with his hand over the detonator, glum Rast exploded with emotions that seemed to boil up out of nowhere. “You freaks!”
“Granis, Rast. Blasted basic granis!” Miltay cheered him up, and this conversation was over my head again. “Plus the experience. If it all works like it’s supposed to, we’ll show up in Lertance with a new level. You know what that will give us.”
“Fuck you.,” Miltay calmly ignored his subordinate's insults. "You won’t be the one spitting blood, you bitch… I hate you!”
That was followed with a flood of curses so foul and elaborate that I thought even the long-dead Sintsov would have died again‒ of envy this time. It seemed even conjunctions were cursewords. That was pure talent. I gave Miltay a questioning look, hoping for an explanation.
“Rast is a shang by race.” The mercenary didn’t bother to put on airs. — “They look ju
st like people, but their insides are different. From radiation they croak right off, even at low doses. Elves’ ointment will keep him alive, but after the explosion that shang will cough all his guts out. The longest he ever lasted was two hours; but we don’t really need more now. So he’ll stuff it and go next.”
“To hell with all of this!” The flow of cursing stopped and at that moment the mercenary, highlighted with the green color of new knowledge, pushed the detonator button. The Dungeon shook with a series of powerful explosions; no matter how much I prepared myself, the ground shifted and vanished from under my body and I rolled on the ground once Burst activated the bomb. The Dungeon did not just shake – it stood on its head.
The shock wave failed to tear our protection as we crouched under the impenetrable dome. While I was trying to get into a more or less vertical position, Miltay was already pouring the healing potion down Rast’s throat. Information on receiving experience and new levels flashed before me: the explosion propelled me up to level 24, adding ten levels. Rast swallowed the elixir and was now coughing horrendously, spraying the stones with blood and shreds of flesh. A minute later the mercenary was on his feet though. His head was concealed with an elaborate helmet: Rast did not want us to see his face, so he made it opaque.
“Look here what we’ve done here,” Miltay drawled as soon as the force dome was down. Personal protection immediately beeped in alarm and my Energy bar started edging down. The temperature in the Dungeon was such as to make normal organic life impossible. I was waste deep in melted stone, so, in order to not burn up I had to take an elixir right away, bringing up my Energy level. The class armor, even though it was damaged, still functioned well enough to ensure a comfortable temperature and sufficient air circulation. I was glad that I had been able to replace the standard set with this improved armor.
Pulling me out of the magma trap, Miltay put me across his shoulders, nodded to Rast, and we trundled forward, knee-deep in lava. The shock wave obliterated all the rubble, clearing the path for us. I poured the next elixir down my throat and sighed heavily. At this rate all my stocks would last an hour at most.
“Rast,” Miltay called, and the dead silence of the Dungeon was shattered with AK shots. Several ricochets followed by explosions of my “Templar’s Blows” and the players leveled up with a little more experience.
“Those blasted monsters are hard to kill though!” It seemed Miltay never lost his optimism. Throwing me over the other shoulder he bent down to pick something up from the ground, and I saw the other cave with crab apocalypse. There was a lake of molten stone in the middle of the huge cave. Lava poured into it from all the side passages, filling up the explosion epicenter. At the edge here and there crab remains were melted into the walls: even the incredible temperatures and shock wave were unable to fully obliterate the monsters with tenfold enhancement. Miltay seemed to be particularly glad to see that some crabs still moved. Without claws or eyes, with only half a body remaining, they still were striving to survive, and Rast hastened to finish off the monster closest to us.
“Look here!” The head of the mercenaries drawled his favorite saying as he gladly threw the loot into the inventory: the already familiar chitin, black mucus and meat. “There’s a real virgin land here! Rast, you go left, I go right. Yari, just lie here for a while. You have enough elixirs? So, just stay here and drink them. Come on, quick, we don’t have much time!”
I wanted to believe that Miltay dumped me into the hot lava with at least some care and concern; otherwise I really would have to file a claim against him. The experience scale started climbing pleasantly: the mercenaries worked fast, leaving no chance for the surviving crabs.
“It’s your turn.” Twenty-two Energy elixirs later Miltay yanked me out of lava that was not even thinking of cooling and put me over his shoulders again. “Just be quick. See any secret cashes?”
I heard Rast choking in another fir of coughing on the right; he was already unsteady on his feet, but hung on with the last of his strength.
“Nothing,” I quickly checked out the walls, but there were no familiar red highlights. “Even if there had been something, it must have all burnt to hell,”
“Look here‒ the data on the loot; let’s keep moving.” An information message quacked, showing me the list of loot. I whistled with pleasure: there were seven crab eyes among the other stuff. Seven enhancement gems with tenfold level! Who was that person laughing at my double luck?!
“Rast, can you walk?”
The mercenary barely nodded and, holding on to the wall, moved towards the passage to the third cave; his gait was unsteady. According to the Dungeon map, we were in for the meeting with the final boss of the level.
If there had been any traps between the caves, the shock wave and heat swept them out mercilessly from our path. The walk towards the final crab was just like a pleasure stroll. Miltay, who was completely unharmed, had to carry the legless me; Rast, who was coughing up blood and dragging his feet, was trying to keep up with us. However, as soon as we entered the third cave, all traces of joy vanished. In the middle of disfigured and melted hall there was a stone pedestal, occupied by slightly singed Dungeon boss. What joy can there be when a ten-foot monster is staring at you – the one who had just easily survived a nuclear explosion? Miltay sighed heavily and cursed. I already knew that he did not have a second bomb. The current license of “Zeltan” team allowed them to carry only one “argument of last resort”.
We came closer and the customary green highlight around the gigantic crab dissipated. The wall behind the monster glowed blue, and I gladly informed my companions of that right away. Apparently, the pedestal and the crab had protected it from the shock wave.
“There’s not much to rejoice about: look here, how this bastard regenerates.” Miltay nodded at the crab’s chitin, on which the cracks were growing smaller. “What could we do?”
“Since we can’t kill it, you need to distract it till I get to the cache,” I shared my bright idea and encountered a contemptuous stare.
“Would a second be enough for you, speedster? That’s how much this freak would take with Rast and myself. Never mind that it’s big – this critter is faster than both you and me, even if you still had your crunchers. Look here, just the front paws are…”
Miltay was describing the abilities of the boss’ physiology, making me more and more depressed: the situation looked really bleak. Regeneration, extreme speed, powerful protective shield that enabled it to survive the explosion – everything was stacked against us. Rast leaned his back against the wall, stuck his hands into virtual space and a couple of moments later a big metal backpack clanged onto the floor. Lifting his head Rast wheezed something unintelligible, but Miltay understood him and perked up.
“Look here, he can barely breathe but his head’s still cool! That could work! Yari, the situation is shit, but we are clever!”
The mercenary meaningfully nodded at the backpack
“And serendipitous. This is a Garlad Tactical Backpack,” Miltay started clarifying the idea. “Today you have already walked and crawled, so now you get to fly. Don’t you worry, the speed this thing gets is really good‒ you should be able to slip by the monster. Well, in case you don’t we are going to lengthen you a bit. If it grabs you, it would just get something that was gotten before already.”
With those words Miltay took out two machine guns and attached them where my legs had been, tying all this contraption together with the cloaks extracted from his own and Rast’s inventory. I was looking on, silent, as all of this was sinking in. Meanwhile Miltay continued:
“Look here, once you pass the boss, Rast and I start shooting at it with whatever we’ve got left to distract it from you. The crab gets excited and comes over here. This is just a moment or two, no more, even with the protection we’ve got. And after that it depends on your luck. You’ll have three or four seconds. I’ll point you in the right direction – your task is not to croak as you hit the wall. Just g
rab the cache right away. Got that?”
“So I don’t need to control it?” Silent Rast was already attaching the backpack to my armor.
“That skill takes many years to learn,” Miltay admitted. “Look here: frankly speaking, I don’t think it’ll work. We’ve tried this twice. Failed both times. But with your luck… the Game can play any trick. There’s nothing else we can try anyway. Look here, this is the switch: once you hit the wall, push ‘off’. It’s simple‒ look here. Got that?”
“I got it, I got it already!” I reassured him.
I was gently lifted and then I floated in midair. I did not know the principle of operation of the backpack, but I did not notice any flame jets, air jets, or any other kind of jets. It felt like the thing worked using magnetic fields. I would need to find one like that at the auction for myself and learn how to use it.
“Three is the number I shall count.” Miltay adjusted the direction of my future flight, holding me lightly by the head, and then performed another miracle: a Kord appeared from his personal inventory. A heavy machine gun – its characteristics made it more like a small cannon rather than simply a machine gun.
“Of course,” he grinned, seeing my admiring look. “We still have something to surprise the monsters. Rast: ready? Yari: activate your shields, push on the switch and drink the elves’ shit. Like, right away. Better stick it into your mouth. Here, I’ll help you. Look here, don’t swallow it yet. So come on, dear! One! Two! Go!”
My stomach seemed to lodge in my throat, trying to leave my body completely: the flying backpack was set to maximum initial speed available. I did not even have time to feel anything: Miltay had placed my hand right over the “off” button, and inertia was what helped me: the backpack turned off a moment after the launch. But that split second was enough for the boss to flicker by somewhere off to the right and then the massive wall gladly slammed my long-suffering body. An astounding crash on it crushed everything that was still left of my body. The class armor held, so I did not just splat into the wall; however, it did not help against inertia. Had it not been for Miltay’s advice, I would have been thrown out of the Dungeon that very moment: the stone under me turned red instantly. However, the healing and painkilling potion flowed straight down my throat from the broken vial despite my jaw being totally shattered. The pain faded so I was able to avoid pain shock even though I felt like I did not have a single whole bone left in my body. For some reason I could not see out of my right eye, but the left one was fixed on the bright blue point on the wall. Miltay’s calculations had been correct, and my goal was literally just about under my hand. The problem was that my hand refused to move.
The Quest (Dark Paladin Book #2) LitRPG Series Page 10