“According to my information, only three players can be within the Reverse at the same time,” the catorian purred straight into my ear. He actually managed to tickle me with his whiskers to boot. I jerked my head in the other direction – first in surprise and then in disgust. That was so like Archibald, to switch off the light and return silently in the dark, to set the stage just right for his victim. “There is a standard restriction for places like this. The number of visitors is set at the initial entry and cannot be changed. Had my dim student not dragged a live orc here, she would not have been able to invite me in. Now I have done the same thing. We have no information as to what kind of Keeper is lurking in wait for us here or what traps we could encounter along the way towards him. Therefore, I need a real helper, not a sorry sight of one who barely completed the training. So the choice was between you and Dolgunata. You won since you hold the key to the Reverse. It’s quite simple. Are you satisfied, or do you want me to do a little song and dance for you in addition?”
The halo fell off the druid’s head with a loud clang, and I could breathe a sigh of relief. There was a method to her madness. A logic that my male mind could follow. She treated the orc and cared for him in order to get the teacher in; then she killed him for the same purpose. Also, her killing now fit within my familiar perception of this world.
“A true helper? Let me guess. You are going to drag Devir here.”
“Aren’t you a smartie.” The Paladin lowered his head and looked at me from under his eyebrows.”You can do it after all, when the respawn point is the only alternative.”
“Now I did not get any of that.”
“Maybe I was too hasty with praise.” A comm call sounded in silence. “Devir, greetings! I have a great offer to you: a stroll through Marcus’ Reverse together with me. Respawn without a chance to come back, torture, pain and hellish level-up are guaranteed. Are you in?”
“You have to ask?!” I could hear the mage’s enthusiasm so clearly that I would not be surprised had Devir jumped out right from the comm’s speaker. “Who’s the third?”
“Does it matter?” Was I the only one immensely irritated by Archibald’s habit of answering a question with another question?
“You don’t do things that don’t matter,” the mage smirked. “The only living one I see is Yari, Dolgunata and Sakhray are out. So, then, I don’t have to worry. You have cannon fodder available.”
“You have a minute to decide, then I’ll wipe out your tracker mark.” The catorian cut him off and dropped the call.
“There’s nothing to decide.” The darkness around us faded from the blue portal and Devir joined us. "I said I was in.”
Turning towards me, Devir joked about himself being right, and pointed out my mistakes:
“Yaropolk, you really ought to clean up other people’s trackers on you, at least sometimes. You shine like Tokyo viewed from space! Archibald, he really is a shame to you. What will they think about you as a teacher?”
“There is a large room right around the corner.” The catorian ignored the comment and started describing the task. “The two of us go. Yaropolk stands at the door and keeps out of it.”
“We share loot fifty-fifty?” The mage clarified matter-of-factly.
“Forty-five each to us, ten to Yaropolk,” Archibald corrected him magnanimously, and the hunters, pleased with themselves, started down the hallway. “I think the floor is out. Marcus likes to floor one with surprises. It would be better… Yaropolk, now what?”
The catorian was asking evenly, but without hiding his irritation. I quickly caught up with the player and launched into a list:
“First of all I want to know what I got myself into, and in detail. Second of all: ten percent? Oh really? Did I hear you right? I consider that I have rightfully earned already half of what is available here; you two are welcome to share the rest. Either you accept my conditions, or I leave for the Sanctuary and shut the Reverse. I have the key.”
“Dearest child, the only way for you to leave the Reverse is feet first,” Devir interjected. “Teleports don’t open from here, and completing Marcus’s reverse is as unrealistic as imagining Archibald a caring teacher. We are all doomed here.”
“That’s not a problem.” I shrugged. “You will not even get a shot at passing through the Reverse; your losses will be far greater than mine. What is a level for me and for you? There’s simply no comparison. And another thing: do I understand correctly that you don’t care about the Lecleur pendant? So then why am I here? For your fun and potential ten percent?”
Silence hung over us. I really had nothing to lose, so I demonstratively activated my artifact and extended the spikes. As I knew, darkness was not a problem for those two.
“Do you know that the Reverse is not a natural phenomenon? When I was getting the key in the place that you know of,” Archibald said finally, “I found out who was the maker of this Reverse. It was made by Marcus; he is a pedantic dorky gnome from the Center of the Game. He is known for his fondness for designing traps. However, he has a weakness: he likes to reward crafty players by building a lot of cool nice gifts into the Reverse. Even the client would not know what kind of Easter eggs his Reverse might be hiding and how to pass through it properly. But that makes it all the more interesting, no?”
Archibald paused, letting me think over the information he had presented and prepare for more. What a show-off!
“Naturally, Iven has a direct portal to the end point, which makes it unnecessary for him to pass through. If one were to evaluate his abilities in all fairness, he would not advance beyond the first room. I know what I am talking about. I have seen seven of those labyrinths with my own eyes; the highest personal record is completing the second room. Do you realize yet what you have gotten yourself into, or should I go into further detail about things that should be obvious even to an idiot?”
“What about the pendant and the share of loot?” By now I was already immune to the sarcasm in Archibald’s voice, so it did not affect my business skills.
“There is nothing about the pendant. The problems of Iven and his offspring are just that: problems of Iven and his offspring. If he desires to restrict his daughter in her moves, no one can forbid this, except, perhaps, the Game itself, since it initiated a hundred quests. Once I get back to Gerhard and report my information to him, he’ll interrogate Iven and everything will become clear. What’s the point of wasting time on this? There are much more interesting things than that. For example, why in hell you think you are entitled to fifty percent of the loot? I got the key from the treasury, Dolgunata brought everyone here, not you. Devir and I will be doing the work, not you. Are you out of your mind, bringing up numbers like that?”
“Your information about my role is distorted. I found the information about the Reverse, I established trust with Sophie, and I was the one who obtained the key to the Reverse, as well. And there is another thing: had it not been for me, Dolgunata would still be wailing and drooling on the floor and would never have made it to the treasury! All she did was push the orc and herself into the Reverse once the alarms went off. But that was exclusively so that you and Devir could enter here!” I parried, trying not to betray my anger at being simply used to get to potential loot, when Archibald had no intentions to help with the pendant. “That’s definitely more than ten percent. I suggest we split it even. One-third each.”
“Listen, let’s go already, shall we?” Devir snorted addressing the catorian. “I could understand Yaropolk; what do you do with a puppy like that? He’ll fight for every granis. But what are you bargaining for? Should Yaropolk get a hundred granises, we’ll just bump him off at the order of the Game, and no big deal. Why are you in such a huff?”
“Me, me, me… you are a loudspeaker.” Archibald sighed. “You would do well to use your brain instead of your mouth. Later he’ll shout at every corner that his teacher robbed him blind. So I have to take care of my reputation and in addition of the well-being of this twit, sinc
e he is unwilling to do it himself. Where else will I find such a knucklehead if they start hunting him? And stop your hooting!”
“There are only granises here? No objects?” I drawled with disappointment.
“Marcus is certainly brilliant, but he is not the Creator,” Devir snorted. “How would he know what class player would decide to try his traps? And what specialty? What artifact would he have? What if a dark one were to receive a source of Light? Yaropolk, please stop playing dumb. We are losing time. As far as I know, Iven is already close. He ran off from Bernard’s, saying his estate was compromised. Could there be a chance he has another key to the Reverse?”
“Another key would not help him,” I explained briefly. “It would be a trifle difficult to reach the entrance. The treasury is blocked.”
“What did you take?” Archibald reacted, and in his voice I clearly heard disappointment with himself: he had killed Dolgunata before she had reported the latest events. The catorian had believed we had entered the Reverse without extra glitches.
“Nothing.” I cut him off. “My share is seven granises right away, all the objects if there are any to be found here, and ten percent that will be temporarily kept by Archibald.”
Before voicing my new proposal I checked the balance: “Terror” would be about the last thing I needed now.
“We agree. Is that it, finally?” Archibald dropped impatiently.
There was no reason to drag it out and I agreed:
“One could say so.”
The Paladin snorted into his whiskers, turned around and said as he was walking:
“Go on, I am listening! But I swear, if you buck once again or get in our way I’ll just lose it and send you for respawn myself!”
Suddenly a halo of white light flashed around Archibald, indicating that the Game accepted his oath. The catorian purred something very expressive, and Devir nodded with restraint. I was following them quietly, the way it becomes a student, the very picture of humility and diligence.
“I get it. Well, actually, I wanted to ask: why, of all the creatures in the Game, did you chose Devir? How about a thousand years of feud and relentless fighting? Another lie?”
“Why would that be? Personal disagreements are nothing compared to the opportunity to play with Marcus’ Reverse,” Devir clarified. “There are no opponents here, Yaropolk. Here we have a common goal: to go as far as possible and grab as much as possible. For such an endeavor any enmity can be put aside for a while so that it’s ok to show your back to your ally. Until we respawn, of course. Afterwards it will be my pleasure to play some dirty trick on Archibald, and he will respond in kind. It’s all a game, Yaropolk, and it’s time that you learn how to be flexible, curb your pride and look for compromise.”
“The hall is all criss-crossed with rays. I would bet that there are traps on the floor as well. We’ll need hooks.” Archibald did not even bother to answer, returning to discussing tactics.
“Marcus is unlikely to repeat himself.” Devir lost all interest in me as well, indicating that all my whims were reviewed, accepted and no one was going to waste any more time on the newbie. “Did you find out what the nature of the rays was?”
The players started down the hall, discussing tactics for passing the upcoming trap. I kept quiet and followed them slowly. After a few turns that I negotiated by feel in the dark, finally I was able to see the entrance to a large well-lit room. The light stopped at the door, not reaching the hallway floor as it would in normal life. It was just hanging in the surrounding darkness, a regular rectangle that looked so alien it made you want either wipe it out or extend it. Archibald and Devir were standing right at the edge, studying the hall with advanced trackers. Steve was gradually becoming familiar with those gadgets.
I took out the device that I had borrowed temporarily from Alard and started exploring as well; that caused ironic comments aimed at me with the general deep thought along the lines of whatever the kid does is fine as long as he keeps silent and out from underfoot. I proudly adjusted the settings on the device they disdainfully called obsolete and rendered the dynamic rays visible. The only thing that could be said about them with certainty was that there was no obvious algorithm controlling their movement. Steve spent some time analyzing them, but his verdict only confirmed my observation. Another thing my assistant noted was that those were precisely the same rays we had encountered earlier in the hallway – the ones that had killed the orc.
“It’s radiation.” I shared my conclusion even though no one was asking me. I did not actually count on any response; I was just stating my observation about the nature of the rays to myself. However, Devir did not let it go unnoticed, and asked why I thought so. I told him how we had made it to the main treasury and lost the orc in the process.
“Revol?” Devir addressed Archibald again.”Seems very much like it.”
“Most likely.” The catorian nodded, and his tail twitched nervously. “I just hate it so much.
“You don’t find it strange? The only race immune to these rays is catorians. Marcus is perfectly aware of you.
“As well as of my ‘friendly’ relationship with Iven.” Archibald interrupted the mage, seeing where the latter was going. “But I agree, it’s too easy for the first test.”
“Would you let me look at the room through your tracker?” I barged into the conversation, angling for a more significant role than a silent and convenient piece of furniture.
“Archibald: tell me, for the sake of the days I spent as your student, are you losing your edge? Or is it that ignorance is not considered a flaw in your students any more?” Devir grinned without as much as looking in my direction. “To allow students to open their mouths without permission… I would have ended up parking at the respawn point in my time.”
Even though his words were addressed to the catorian, it was obvious that they were aimed at shaming me. "Come to the Sanctuary; we shall talk; I am different from what they all think of me…" Twit in a gown! He still has to answer to me for Monstrichello!
“So maybe the teacher’s attitude had to do purely with your abilities. You are a common mediocrity, which can be helped only by dumb drill exercise. While I am a talent that should not be constrained, or else there will not be enough space for me to develop,” I parried, and grinned, seeing Devir’s narrowed eyes. He was a dangerous enemy, no question about it, but at this time only Archibald has the right to mock me. And even so, I will make him pay for that later.
“I look at you and consider that maybe I should do you a favor and remove your tongue so that it does not hinder your talent from developing. Just to make sure that your entire head does not suffer from its wagging.” The catorian was smiling openly. He liked my quip, and he handed me his instrument as a way of encouragement. “Iven, Devir. You don’t waste time on small stuff?”
“You are forgetting yourself. Number one on my list.” I studied the room through the prism of the new tracker. No change. Just the rays and nothing else.
“The floor,” Steve piped up, showing an elaborate winding pattern. “The dust in the room is distributed unevenly. A very long time ago someone passed along this path, and left a barely visible track after him. Squat down, I need to check it out from another angle.”
I returned the device to the catorian and strolled several times from one wall of the hallway to the other, allowing Steve to see the thickness of the dust layer from different angles. Apparently the teacher realized that I was circling the hallway for a reason, and made a meowing sound requiring that I share the information. Steve generated an image, and I offered the exchange to the catorian.
“Look at the dust on the floor. In some locations the layer is thinner than in others. There are no drafts here, therefore, something pressed the dust down there. Most likely it was someone’s feet; this gives us the path.
“You are trying to convince us that within a couple of minutes you were able to scan the room in detail and perform a comparative analysis of the thickness of
the dust layer in different locations? Barely a week after the Academy?” Devir asked suspiciously.
“I told you I was talented! I said with a certain pride. The frowning face of Archibald as he was studying the path was my sweetest reward. I was able to prove that I was good as more than just cannon fodder. “I am an explorer. Perception is my tool, and information is my weapon.”
“Come closer to the edge, I need to check something else,” Steve asked me. “Look, in some places the dust is compacted more than in others. As if someone was pressing down on it there with more effort. Were they jumping? But if so, they should have disturbed the dust a lot more at the point where they landed. And there is no sign of that. Therefore they did the opposite: they squatted. Look, those two rays are moving in a pattern different from the others. What if they are not ‘revol’, whatever that means?”
The Quest (Dark Paladin Book #2) LitRPG Series Page 30