Hacked: A LitRPG Novel (Incipere Online Book 3), page 6
And with that, the countdown of peace began.
He used the time waiting for his weapon to cool to search the area. No more eyes appeared to glimmer in the darkness. He didn’t know the range the effect of his new fear aura would have, but it was nice to know that it was far enough to keep his wits calm. Despite its usefulness, Athos hated Lone Shot. The risks were huge, but sometimes that ten-times damage bonus or the Overwhelming Power effect was worth it even if he was left defenseless for a full minute. Taking a moment to himself, Athos sat down and rested in the darkness with only the soft glow of a vial of Sol Arum to light his presence.
For him, something just didn’t add up.
Dungeons didn’t lock unless an event started, which may or may not have happened. Wild ones were usually much more timid attacking alone, and they usually dropped more than just a lock box in twenty kills. Not even a single byte or vial of shadow oil added to his total, which was making this trip all the more irritating. Standing center stage in the ruins of the city, Athos could only make the decision to keep pushing forward, but forward wasn’t the easiest option when the path wasn’t exactly clear.
The last two times Athos had been in dungeons, there was always some trick or path he was supposed to take. Tenebrae may have looked the part of a true dungeon, but it hadn’t started as one. The rules were just different here.
All around him, the abandoned buildings and unlit streetlights hinted at what it used to be before the shadows came alive. It was a sleeping world abandoned by a horror he couldn’t imagine enduring. He may have had his own horrors and terrors, but when they were weighed against the whole of Tenebrae’s darkness, he could only take a moment more to marvel at the loss this city-dungeon must have represented.
As if his cool-downs could sense his intent, a new message flashed in his mostly disused communication pane.
Lone Shot Effect has ended.
Well, that was one worry off of his list as he looked around for anything that might be lurking. Despite his desires for the quiet to continue unbroken, it wasn’t meant to be. The silence of the flickering darkness outside of the range of the Sol Arum was broken by the sounds of soft footsteps in the distance. A moment later came another source of light almost as bright as a star in the darkness of the city. It could only have meant one thing. There were still people in Tenebrae!
He couldn’t even stop himself before the words left his lips.
“Hello!” Athos yelled before realizing his mistake. There couldn’t be people here. There were no people in Tenebrae, not anymore. To make his mistake worse, this was his instanced area for his party, existent or not, only.
As if answering him, the star’s light went out.
Shit, Athos cursed at himself as he reequipped Magus. So much for having the advantage to start.
His fears came to a crashing halt as a woman’s voice called back to him with a rather friendly, excited, “Hello there. I wasn’t sure if you were friendly or not.”
The voice grabbed Athos’s attention, flinging him around to face where it had come from. “Who’s there?”
He could hear steps approaching, but the star didn’t reappear as the almost cheerful woman’s voice met his ears. “I’m River Hexi, Blade Dancer.”
He strained his eyes, trying to make out something, but outside of his ring of light, if the eyes weren’t reflecting his light, it was worthless. Only the occasional flash of light against metal could tell him which direction she was approaching from. “What are you doing here alone? It’s dangerous.”
“I could ask you the same question, you know?” the girl continued as she got closer. “How’d you clear this area so fast? Do you have a party here?”
“It wasn’t so bad when I got them all in one place. Just took a few vials of Pyrothium,” he said simply. It doesn’t hurt when your skin is nearly as tough as solid steel. Despite her openness, Athos didn’t ask the simple question waiting on his tongue. It just didn’t seem proper to ask if she was a quest creature. “It’s a real time-saver, and the bonus damage of it and the Sol Arum against the shadow Wild Ones keeps them from overrunning me.”
As she stepped closer, his finger twitched against his weapon’s trigger. She wore no armor and carried the large sword of a warrior, but those things alone weren’t what bothered him. No, what unnerved him the most was there was no sign of what could have caused the light. Warriors, even ones as strong as his elemental blade friend Torrent, didn’t travel alone into dungeons. “Why are you here alone?”
Her expression turned coy as she eyed him again. He didn’t like that look. He had seen it all too often, and her tone change told him she had taken his words as a challenge. “I’ve got all the rights to be here that you do, but I’d guess you’re here for the same reasons I am.”
He shook his head. “I really doubt it, River, so explain it to me.”
Athos watched the shadows on her face move into a smile before she spoke again. “You really don’t know?”
The alchemical arm didn’t like that smile and raised Magus to point at the center of her chest as he shook his head. “I don’t have any idea what you’re talking about.”
Her gaze seemed to wander as a silence filled the air between them. The tension of the situation grew between him and the blade-wielding woman. The moment before he took the chance to break the silence, River spoke first.
“Well, I’m here to take on the Lord of Shadows,” River explained, and, if her smile was any indication, she wasn’t joking.
Athos paused. Taking a moment to take her in, fighting the dungeon boss wasn’t the first thing he would take her for.
She can’t be serious, he thought to himself as he waited for her to say it was a joke.
A long pause passed, and she continued to stare at him with a dead-set gaze he had only met once before.
She’s serious…
It was too much. Omnida, Lord of Shadows, was a rumor, a monster greater than any he had met before. If the rumors were true, it was stronger than even Wrath had been, and it had taken his life to kill that. A grim laugh snuck past his lips as Magus vanished back into its holster. “That’s a death wish. You can’t beat Omnida even if he is real.”
By the look on her face, he hadn’t gotten the point across. Her face set all the more determined as she explained a simple fact. “I’m stronger than I look.”
She’s an idiot, he thought to himself before pointing out the obvious. “You’re not even equipped enough to deal with the Wild Ones here. He’s not going to go easy on you because you’re new. You’ll die if you go alone.”
To his relief, River hesitated. In the blanket of darkness, her features crinkled around her nose as she tried to work out something Athos couldn’t begin to figure out.
Then, a frightening thought pushed itself back to the surface. Maybe she was messaging an ally nearby? The thought put him on edge as the silence dragged on. Another moment passed, then another, until she finally asked him an obvious question.
“Who are you?”
He nearly smacked himself. That was what was bothering her? Well, if that was all it would take to get her to trust him… “Athos Aramis, Alchemical Arm.” He would leave his rank out, but the name should have been enough to give her pause. Most people hated alchemists for one reason or another thanks to the Great Hunt. “Look, we don’t have time for this. We need to find the stairway to the next floor. There’s an arch in the plaza we can use to leave. I use it all the time.”
She frowned at first. With only a few feet between them, Athos could see River’s eyes flick from place to place. The smile that came next was almost as unnerving as her words. “I’m not leaving. I’d disappoint my audience, Athos.”
What the actual Hell? “Audience?” the alchemical arm blurted out at he tried to keep his emotions in check. From the look on her face, he must have failed miserably.
River’s eyes flicked again to some unseen thing as her hand moved to rest on her over-sized blade. “You can help if you want, but if you’re not going to do that, just get out of the way. Okay? I don’t have time to babysit you.”
Now, it was his turn to give her the once over. It wasn’t the first time he wished he had a magic class for Scan or Detect. Still, he studied the way she held herself, the way she watched him back, and the ever so slight way she held herself back when his eyes lingered just a moment too intense or too long. With a sigh, he made his decision. “I can’t just let you die.”
Her expression didn’t change as she took a step towards him. “Let is a very strong word, Athos.”
Again, she hesitated. Her eyes wandered, but not for as long. She smiled again and a familiar window opened in front of the woman.
Oh no.
“How about I let you help us then, Athos?” River said, as she began a familiar gesture. A gesture so common, so open to the people of Incipere, that not a single person alive could have taken it as hostile.
She was sending him a party invite.
No! No! No!
Except for Athos Aramis, the one man on Incipere that couldn’t join a party. His face fell like a ton of bricks as her gesture continued. Fear bubbled to the surface as he prepared himself for the fallout as a familiar message sprang to life in his vision.
Error Code: 306694812532
“What the Hell?” River screamed into the darkness as her eyes continued to dart around, reading the obvious messages Athos knew would be there.
Athos looked at her, sighed, and shifted a bit in his stance as his nerves began to get the better of him. “I really wish you hadn’t done that.”
If looks could kill, he would have been dead with the way River bore her eyes of rage through him. “You did that?”
He shifted nervously from the front to the back of his feet. This wasn’t going well. “It wasn’t on purpose.”
A venomous hate dripped from her gaze as she finally drew the oversized sword. The blade shimmered in the light of his Sol Arum, but he knew as she was that she couldn’t take him. That didn’t make it any easier as she almost screamed her next words. “You’re a trap!”
Nearly as soon as her intent made itself known, Magus was pointed directly at her chest. As the fluid motion continued, he moved back a few steps, keeping River at the edge of his protective light. “I was trying to help you.” Whether you believe it or not, River.
That didn’t help.
If anything, it made things worse as she moved from an angry, offbalanced stance into a more calmer, balanced combat stance not that different than the one Torrent or Sandra favored.
As she shifted her weight, she continued her assault. “You were trying to distract us!”
Of course it’s “us,” Athos said to himself. He frowned and repeated the word for her to hear again, “Us?”
River’s smile grew dangerously smug at his intoned question. “Do you really think I’d be as stupid as you to be alone in a dungeon?”
Athos smiled almost invisibly as he nodded. “You seem the type to do it.”
Her head shot to one side as she screamed into the darkness behind her, “Shut up, Dante!”
Trying to keep his voice as leveled as his weapon, Athos scanned the distance for whoever she had been messaging and failed. All he saw was darkness. “Your partner?”
Whether or not she realized it, he had hit some kind of nerve. River’s stance wavered for just a moment as his words hit home.
Curious, he thought to himself.
“He’s none of your business,” she quipped as she got back into her stance.
A small smile grew against his cheeks as Athos realized something. Dante was a weakness. Pressing his advantage, Athos continued to keep the attention off of himself. “Seeing as he probably wants to kill me too, I’d say Dante’s my concern as well.”
That was not the right thing to say.
Her face flushed as she fumed, “Just shut up and fight me!”
“It’s not worth it.” That much was true. He had nothing to gain and everything to lose if he accepted. When no duel screen appeared, he had the distinct feeling River wouldn’t stop until he was dead. Without armor or any charms that he could see, she had no chance against him, let alone the legendary beast that waited in the depths. “Why don’t you take your friend and just go?”
“You first!”
Athos almost chuckled at her terrible battle cry, but as her blade moved, his instincts took charge. He knew that stance.
“Blade rush!”
All that time around blade wielders was starting to pay off. He knew that move couldn’t change direction. He knew its area of effect, and he knew just what to do as the thick metal guillotine throttled for his chest. Magus vanished in a flash of pixels and his less lethal response came into play: his bottle of Sol Arum. With a bit of luck and a lot of practice against his friends, Athos uncorked the thick liquid and splashed it into the air right in her path.
From his vantage point, it didn’t take long to see the bright liquid splatter against her face and for the woman to fall to the ground. He knew it wouldn’t be pleasant, but the way she was screaming almost made him regret his choice. For just a moment, he felt it would have been more humane just to shoot her.
“River!”
Taking the second voice as his cue to exit, Athos dropped the remainder of the vial on the floor and retreated into the darkness.
“I can’t see! God-damned-fucking shit! It burns!” River cried as fear lingered in her voice. “I can’t see!”
With his dark coat and no light sources to reveal him, Athos watched as someone bent down, materialized something, and poured it across her eyes and face. Whatever it was made his Sol Arum suddenly simply blow away as if it were dried sand in a windstorm and whisking the pain away with it. Slightly jealous of his inability to use healing items, he watched as the presumed Dante helped his friend recover.
“Damn,” came the final curse from River as she began wiping her eyes, but Dante pushed her hands away.
“Not yet,” Dante scolded, letting the concoction do its work.
Strangely, he looked no more prepared for combat than his partner did. No armor, outside of a strange pair of stone gauntlets, and plainclothes. Sure, he had a focus, but he knew that mage classes weren’t worth their salt without a proper line to protect them. Moving further back from the halo of light, Athos tried his appeal one last time.
“Dante, take her and go.”
The mage looked around sharply, taking in everything as he continued to pour the liquid over his friend’s face. Athos refused to move, knowing that a sound might give him away while the man was paying attention to him.
To his great disappointment, Dante was no better than River. “We can’t do that.”
Of course you can’t. Silently, Athos started off in another direction before answering as quickly as he could. “Then leave me alone.”
To the man’s credit, Dante seemed to consider the option. It was almost enough for Athos to take a breath.
“I’ll kill you!” River screamed out into the darkness.
To his surprise, her threat didn’t have the intended effect as Athos chuckled to himself. Almost beyond his control, his chuckle turned dark as the halls of Tenebrae and as cold as the bottom of his ice blue eyes. Finally regaining his composure, he continued to smile to himself in the darkness as he answered. “Better than you have, River.”
That much was true.
The glitched monster that Paul had become, Wrath, had killed Athos just over two years ago, and Wrath couldn’t hold a candle to Omnida. He didn’t remember his time being dead, but he had somehow managed to respawn alone in the forest. Glitches of his own aside, it could have been worse. How much worse, Athos couldn’t figure, but he was thankful at least for some semblance of life.
Of course, his straightforward response wasn't what River expected. “Have what?”
A grim, stern line crept across his face as his hand absently rubbed the center of his chest.
If only you knew, River.
As Dante began to recreate the star from earlier, Athos decided it was time to move deeper in. He had wasted enough time with those two and decided it was best to leave the darkness to answer for him, but if he were being honest with himself, it was a little bittersweet. It had been a long time since people hadn’t known who he was around here. It would have been nice to have some company that didn’t look at him like so many did.
Despite what he might have thought of them, Athos was careful as he stayed in the shadows and followed behind them.
It had been nearly half an hour before they found the stairs that led to the next floor. Of course, it had been in the one place he hadn’t looked yet, but honestly, who hid stairs in a bathroom stall?
“This is disgusting,” Dante commented from inside the room. “Why did Ellaunum think this much detail was a good idea?”
River’s voice rang true as the creaking stall door either swayed or was pushed further open. “You and I both know the answer to that.”
“That really doesn’t make it any better.”
“You should love this,” River joked. “Think about it. It gives new meaning to going to shit, doesn’t it?”
Athos smiled to himself. At least the bathroom was clear to begin with. Then again, why was there even a bathroom? It wasn’t like Inciperians had to purge their data on a daily basis. At that thought, Athos’s hand quickly covered his mouth as he tried very hard not to laugh. The two continued to banter a bit more back and forth before Dante finally gave in to his friend’s strong suggestions.
From the shadows on the outside, Athos could see the glow of that same spell from before glow a bit brighter. “You’re never any fun, River.”
Athos could practically hear the smug in her voice as his footsteps began to echo and push farther away. “I’m plenty of fun, just not for you.”
A few grumbles followed, and the light died soon after. Athos felt a pang of guilt. Not for the first time, he wished that he could have been some help to them. However, his existence just started causing problems with new people. He had gotten used to the pitchforks and torches, both proverbial and physical, that people used against him, but it still hurt every time it happened.
