“Sure…”
Before I knew what was happening, she grabbed me and pulled me after her.
“Who do you want to contact? What do you need to know? Need to send a message? Tell me quick!”
I gave her the contact details Yoshi had given me. Our techie had made me learn it by heart — an untrackable proxy comm that would redirect the caller to our base.
“Talk to Ed Rodriguez and Hung Lee.”
“Friends of yours?” Kerry asked.
“I really hope so. Best if you talk to Ed, if you can, it’s his subject. We need a list of legendaries and artifacts for jewelers that we have in the clan or the ASS!”
“In the ass?” Kerry giggled. “Oh, the goblins, got it. Consider it done. Now step outside, I really do need to pee. Or stay if you want, I don’t care…”
I fled the bathroom, spurred on by her laughter.
Once my assistant left, I started reading the top comments of the day online. The very first one made me smile:
Bosun | +17.32m | 2 hours ago
Congratulations to everyone who supported my ultimatum yesterday! We won, guys! Snowstorm backed off! Now is the perfect time to give Scyth a chance. How about we vote him the best player of the day? No matter how he plays tomorrow, let’s vote for him to reward his sick performance so far! Well, who’s with me?
Scyth, son, if you’re reading this, mom says hi!
The other comments centered more around what Quetzal had done, the split between him and Marcus, the perspectives of Hellfish’s group… But the demon came to dominate all discussions. A multitude of mythology buffs and satanists came to the fore, advancing their opinions on which high demon we were dealing with. Diablo? Lucius? Belial? It definitely wasn’t Azmodan; his arm simply wouldn’t have fit through the gap in the gates.
I didn’t waste any time on empty guesswork. I took out a few sheets of paper and a pen and started drawing. The path of the solo player is tortuous, but Behemoth taught me that the best allies are made from old enemies. The kind that know what you’re capable of, and respect you for it. But first of all, I had to figure out who wasn’t my enemy.
I opened the day’s highlight reel on Disgardium Daily. It was commentated by Dariush Kovalski, whose voice I remembered from the Arena final. Then I started to match up the shields that had been placed on me with the classes of the contestants, using Occam’s razor to discard the impossible options.
An hour later I had a list of potential allies.
Once done with that, I started writing down rosters of the groups that had formed. I traced the lines, and if I couldn’t remember something, I checked the holorecordings. In the end, all arrows pointed to five contestants that had influence on the others. Destiny was out. Quetzal and Hellfish weren’t my enemies. The only ones left were Marcus Jansson and Joseph Rosenthal, Marcus and Meister…
The hardest thing is to convince enemies that they’re better off being your friends. My persuasion skills might not have been the best in real life, but a certain gangster from the last century used to say that a kind word and a good gun worked better than just a kind word.
I could find words, and interesting artifacts, and I already had a ‘gun.’ Several, even: Sharkon, the Montosaurus, Storm and a few powerful abilities like Wheel of Fortune.
Incidentally, it seemed the AI who had described the stats to me was right. Luck didn’t seem to do a damn thing here.
Chapter 13. Under The Dome
IN THE MORNING, I nearly overslept and missed the start of the game session in the Cursed Chasm. And all because I put my hopes in Kerry and didn’t set an alarm in my room. Actually, the alarm was set, but I switched it off because I’d stayed up all night until morning working on my plans. Kerry didn’t come to get me up after I nodded off.
The night before, after leaving me in my room, she let slip that she was planning to celebrate her winnings with some girlfriends. Guess she had a good time, I thought, cleaning my teeth furiously. There was no chance of breakfast; I only had just enough time to get ready and run to the immersion zone. My only snack was a Healthy Fuel energy bar I grabbed at the minibar. It was basically just UNB pressed into a bar and covered in chocolate, but a little tastier. Theoretically, it contained everything the body needs. In practice, you’d kick the bucket in a couple of months if you ate nothing else.
As I walked quickly down the corridor, I tried to contact Kerry, but her comm was in do-not-disturb mode. Fine. I didn’t need her that much anyway, it was just strange. Wasn’t it her job to be with me at all times?
Anyway, I was still angry that she forgot to wake me up! Or didn’t think she had to? Either way, it was unprofessional. I had big plans for the morning! My plans of last night all depended on whether I could… Nether, now I’d have to put it all off until the evening.
Today I didn’t drop my eyes — I looked right into the faces of the other contestants, trying to figure out which of them were my secret allies. I even said hello to a few, but abandoned that after nobody answered me back. Michelle, who played a dryad in Dis, just looked away when we met. Only old Joseph nodded when we passed each other in the immersion zone. I wanted to talk to him alone and I headed toward him, but Meister acted as if he didn’t notice, sped his feet and smiled to someone else:
“Good morning, my dear! Slept well?”
He got a vaguely muttered response. Generally, as I walked through the immersion zone, I felt that something imperceptible had changed. If in the first days everyone was upbeat, joking and talking, now… Most of the players walked in concentrated silence, like our miners on their way to a shift.
When I reached my capsule, I tried to call Kerry again. No answer. I shrugged and put her out of my mind — this was the first time in four days that I’d be playing without penalties. I had to get the maximum possible use out of it.
I appeared on the floor of the Pitfall and waited for my eyes to adjust to the gloom and for Night Vision to activate, then looked around.
My first thought was that I had to get out of there as fast as my Flight could carry me. The viewers had given me a chance to play without penalties, and my most important job for the day was to kill at least one mob, or better yet, get a level or two. I even discarded the idea of leveling up Meditation at the bottom of the Pitfall. No matter how important my max spirit was, I’d disappoint the public if I sat there all day, and then they’d make me the worst player again. Then the debuffs might rip away any chance I had of winning…
My thoughts broke off when I felt a sudden heat on my forehead, as if a white-hot tentacle was trying to crawl inside my skull. I looked at the open gates. An eye flashed in the blackness like the mouth of a volcano spewing lava, then a rumble came from within:
“The barrier cleansed you of their marks, mortal, but you cannot fool me! Have they returned?”
I felt an overwhelming urge to answer, to talk to him. I felt comfortable and cozy, as if I wasn’t on the floor of the Pitfall in the Cursed Chasm, a chunk of land torn off reality itself and demonically melded with a fragment of the Inferno, but sitting in a tavern with my friends at the end of a beautiful day. Talking, joking, sharing in successes and drinking ale. As if it wasn’t a demon, but Bomber or Crawler asking whether the Sleeping Gods had returned. My desire to divulge everything I knew was so strong that I opened my mouth even before I knew exactly what I wanted to say.
“They never went anywhere! They exist and always will, unlike us. We’re just their dream, after all!”
“Oh, my… what a familiar speech!” the demon growled. I couldn’t see his face, but I could hear the grin in his voice. “But that is not what I asked! Have the Sleepers found a new incarnation? Not all at once, certainly, otherwise it would already be known in the Underworld. Just one, then? Leviathan? The sea rovers respected him. I doubt the New Gods have brainwashed them. Or Kingu? That one knew how to hide…” His voice took on an oily tone. “So who is it, mortal?”
Everything I knew about demons shouted at me: s
ay nothing! I opened my mouth to answer, but immediately forced my teeth closed again. It was clear what he was trying to do. He wanted to get me talking and then lure me out from beneath the dome. Another idea came to mind: since I had to sit here and not become the hero of the day, I could at least try to give the viewers something new.
“First you tell me your name!”
In the first instant, I thought an earthquake had begun: the earth beneath my feet trembled and began to move in waves, stones fell from the walls and the gates flew off their hinges. But it turned out it was only the demon’s laughter.
“You are either a naive fool or a clever intruder, mortal! A-ha-ha-ha! Tell you my name? Perhaps I should just let you put a slave collar on me? Or draw you a Subjugation Pentagram? A-ha-ha-ha!”
Was he screwing around? I could just check it in the interface! As if hearing my thoughts, the demon spoke again:
“I will not tell you my real name. The mortals called me Abaddon. Call me that, if you wish to know who will be devouring your soul. Your turn! Which of the Sleeping Gods has returned to Disgardium?”
“Kingu,” I lied.
“Liar…” the demon grumbled in displeasure. “Behemoth, then? Never mind. I will find out when I taste your flesh. Everything that you know will pass to me… Still, though…” An already familiar squelching noise floated out of the gap. “The Sleepers have marked you! Your soul must not be as weak as it seems from here… Scyth!”
The demon of floor 666 had apparently eaten enough souls to become stronger, mightier. The two scaly arms of Abaddon, whose curse I had carried yesterday, shot out of the gate at the same time and covered the Aegis. It was like I was underground, in darkness. Heat emanated from the demon’s hands and they pulsed with a barely visible reddish light. Their monstrous black nails flashed metallically, pressing into the shield and raking across it.
Seriously? There was nothing I could do but stay there beneath the dome. Now there was no way I could escape!
“Hey, Abaddon! How about you pull your hands away? I’ll take my chance to fly away, and you’ll get yours to eat me!”
“The self-confidence of a dung beetle!” the demon laughed. His voice was dulled beneath the dome and the huge hands covering it. “Do you think the Aegis will protect you? Its invincibility is greatly exaggerated, mortal! By those for whom a moment in a thousand years is an eternity!”
“Sure…” I murmured. “And you don’t even exist! You’re just the product of the sick imagination of game designers!”
This demon was an idiot after all. What was he going to do, argue with the game mechanics?
Crack! I suddenly heard above my head. What the..?! A tiny break ran across the surface of the forcefield dome, then closed up again.
I read the shield’s description and swore.
Aegis
You are protected by an Aegis, a perfect shield that absorbs all but demonic damage. The Aegis does not expire, but the shield will disappear if you move beyond its edge!
Durability: 99.96%.
That part about the demonic damage had only just appeared! It definitely wasn’t there yesterday! Damn… I took a couple of deep breaths in and out, cleared my mind. It was time to start calculating.
The durability numbers had changed: 99.95%. It took five to six seconds to drop by one hundredth of a percent. That meant that Abaddon would take the Aegis down to below half health by the end of the day. But what then?
Wait! The demon, or rather his arms, were within strike range! The boss was at least level 666! I could level up Unarmed Combat!
Smack… My fist got stuck in the thick invisible jelly of the dome. The idea fell flat along with my excitement as soon as I tried to strike with Hammerfist. Apparently, the Aegis worked in both directions. I swore in disappointment, imagining the imba character I could have made if it had worked.
I’d have to return to my initial plan: increase my total spirit by leveling up Meditation. The shield would last a day, but tomorrow… There was nothing left to do but level up spirit and try to escape tomorrow.
I sat down in lotus pose, half-closed my eyes, listened to myself, took a deep breath in and out, then another, and another, until my inner sight saw the core and channels of my spirit.
The scratching claws, the waves of pulsating heat, the fiery shimmer emanating from those demonic hands… I felt like a captive on a prison shuttle with the alarm activated. Not the best environment to meditate in, but the sounds, light and temperature changed rhythmically, and I fell into a trance fairly quickly. The more time I spent in that condition, the less I noticed what was going on around me. My interface paled, then disappeared entirely. My heartbeat slowed even in my real body. At some point, I stopped feeling the heat, seeing the shimmer… it was as if my conscious mind dissolved.
For a fraction of a second, one of the demon’s hands disappeared, grabbing a screeching contestant as they fell, then came back to cover up the dome again. For an instant thought I saw fiery lava pouring from the poor soul’s body, but I didn’t get distracted and look closer.
That was the only thing that nearly interrupted my trance. The demon no longer spoke to me, and I didn’t object. And that’s how I spent the rest of the day, meditating and watching the flows of spirit along the broadening channels of my soul. The core within me also seemed to have grown. My trance was interrupted when a message popped up that I couldn’t ignore:
Contestant! The fourth day of the Demonic Games nears its end!
To avoid character death, it is recommended that you leave enemy territory.
Leaving Cursed Chasm in: 09:59… 09:58…
The first thing I checked was the condition of the Aegis, still pressed beneath the demon’s claws. The shield was holding, but its durability was only a little above 30% — lower than I’d hoped.
But the logs had a pleasant surprise for me. It looked like uninterrupted meditation had a compounding effect!
The last line of skill logs showed:
Meditation level increased: +1. Current level: 15.
By meditating, you now speed up your spirit restoration by 40%.
Spirit: +150. Total: 1,290.
Eleven seconds of Clarity! Another ten points of spirit and it would be twelve! Stay calm, Alex, stay calm… Thrill and excitement surged through me, demanding immediate action. I looked closer at the durability numbers for Aegis — now Abaddon was removing not 0.01%, but twice that. And that begged the question: would the demon continue to break the dome after I logged out? If so, then tomorrow, Scyth would die in the first few seconds.
I had just under ten minutes to solve this tortuous dilemma: to do nothing and log out, or to try to escape from beneath the dome. Both options had their risks. But at least today I didn’t have any penalties…
Clarity!
My vision changed. My heart started thundering like a machine gun, my veins expanded, my lungs couldn’t get enough air… I sped up by a factor of ten, if my calculations were right.
Flight!
Breaking through the veil of the shield, I rocketed upwards with my arms raised and pushed back the demonic hand covering the dome by a couple of feet. The resistance from the Aegis ended as soon as I crossed its edge.
An ordinary thump with my fist activated Surprise — I was counting on that perk to knock the demon off his feet. A following Hammerfist pushed Abaddon’s hand back far enough to open a gap I could escape through. An instant before I collided with the demon’s arm, shimmering Rindzin’s Ghostly Claw extended from my fist.
You dealt critical damage to Abaddon the Destroyer: 520 (14,060 absorbed)!
Health: 666,666,146 / 666,666,666.
Unarmed Combat level increased: +18. Current level: 25.
Accuracy and damage of strikes dealt without a weapon increased by 130%.
Hammerfist improved: +1.
Deals 1,350% of standard damage. Ignores 24% of armor.
The demon’s elongated hands began to move back, returning to their master, b
ut even with their lightning-fast speed, they were too slow. I doubted Abaddon was afraid; it was probably the effect of Surprise knocking him off his feet, and right now he was falling to his back.
I looked at the logs, reading and analyzing what as happening while my arms worked tirelessly, dealing strike after strike. I even opened my mouth for a moment to emit a preventive Ghastly Howl. Who knew, maybe it would work?
Before even a single second passed in Clarity, my Unarmed Combat was already at first rank, although I was still at level 1! A mechanic of the Demonic Games? Either way, the skill’s development path seemed to auto-select, matching the one I’d chosen in greater Dis. Considering the lack of penalties, Path of Justice would be useless here, but the developers had taken that into account and changed the mechanics:
The Demonic Games (Disgardium Book #7): LitRPG Series Page 20