“NO!”
A collective gasp was heard around the bar, mixed with the anxious swearing of Orbos. The fight had started out just fine, with Gary taking care of business and dispatching several monsters with little to no difficulty. He was already celebrating and wondering what he’d do with all the money he’d win when things had started going sideways. The wolf monster turned out to be another traveler, the conversation they had being transmitted with perfect clarity.
Everybody knew that another traveler had appeared before Gary, but nobody knew where that had been. The layer was large, and the cities didn’t share everything with each other. Most had assumed that the traveler had moved on a long time ago, but that was obviously wrong. To make matters worse, he apparently waited for Gary to descend on purpose. And he was fucking insane to top it all off.
Orbos had assumed that nothing could hold a candle to Gary on the eighth layer, but the wolf and his pack were putting up a valiant fight. Sure, Gary seemed to have the upper hand, but there’d been close call after close call. The wolf, who called himself Caedus, had a tactical mind, which Gary lacked, much to his detriment during the fight. When the wolf had somehow managed to block Gary’s teleport, Orbos had just about soiled himself. There was too much money on the line for close calls like that.
Things took a turn for the better after that encounter, with Gary taking things more seriously. He took out pack wolf after pack wolf, not even stopping after being trapped in a forced duel dome, until only he and the alpha were left. It looked like Orbos could finally relax when shit hit the fan big time.
“Who the FUCK is that?” Orbos shouted while pointing at the screen. “And HOW the FUCK did he get into the arena? What is the system thinking? I demand a refund!”
“You can’t refund a placed bet,” Nimma slapped the back of Orbos's head and told him to sit down, which worked for all but two seconds before he was back on his feet and complaining again. He wasn’t alone, with at least half the bar being in a similar uproar. “But really, though, who is that?”
The system provided information cards for all participants of the battle, but staunchly refused to provide any information about the new arrival aside from: “Human, Male”. The conversation provided some clues, but didn’t paint a rosy picture. Apparently, Caedus had used some kind of skill with a high cost to it, which meant the buff he was about to receive was definitely not going to be insignificant, no matter how much the human male downplayed it. Anxiousness reached an all-time high in the bar, since apart from Orbos, almost everybody in Lophan had bet a tidy sum on Gary’s success.
Lophan, who sat at the table next to them with his assistant Linny, looked like he was just about to faint whenever something so much as threatened to put a dent in Gary. He was gripping the table to the point of breaking, and kept mumbling something about how it was not fair, and if Gary lost, he’d be ruined. Apparently, he had bet a tidy sum on Gary as well.
The saving grace came when the entity decided to at least somewhat level the playing field by giving a minor buff to Gary as well. There was no doubt in anybody’s mind that it wouldn’t be anything substantial, but at least there was a chance of still taking home the win.
“I can’t take this anymore!” Orbos howled as he frantically emoting and shouting at the screen, as if it’d help in any way.
“At this point, all we can do is believe in his strength,” Andrius took a calm sip of his drink. “If there’s anyone who can turn around a seemingly impossible situation, it’s him.”
“Put some trust in your friend,” Redax commented stoically, standing behind Nimma with crossed arms. “You’ve seen what he can do. That mutt never stood a chance to begin with, and no amount of cheating will change that.”
“Easy for you to say! You don’t have your entire life’s savings riding on this!” Orbos shot back, earning himself another slap to the back of his head.
The entirety of Lophan was glued to the screens set up all over the city, as the two final contestants clashed once more after the unexpected break.
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I couldn’t help but stare in disbelief as Caedus almost tripled in size. It was a disgusting process to say the least, his body convulsing and bubbling outwards. No matter how much that monster had downplayed it, whatever buff he gave to Caedus had to be something crazy. Not only did it come from a supremely powerful existence, but no regular buff would do something like that to the user. I knew there was only one thing in my arsenal that could help me out of this situation, which was the giant impaler spell.
Unfortunately for me, the giant impaler not only took quite a while to cast, but also had trouble hitting fast enemies. And, considering that Caedus had been incredibly fast before getting the buff, there was no chance in hell I could ever hit him. Fortunately for me, I had just received the answer to my problem via my own buff. The buff may seem extremely minor at first glance, but the temporary skill was exactly what I needed to pull off this stunt. I couldn’t help but wonder whether that guy really held voidlings in such high regard as to throw me a bone, or if my luck stat was at play here. Maybe it was both.
Ruminations aside, I was out of time. Caedus’s grotesque transformation came to an end, and a deep growl reverberated through the arena, shaking the ground. He slowly turned his head and stared at me with the eyes of a wild beast, devoid of intelligent thought. Fuck that was scary.
There were about a hundred meters between us, but from one moment to the next, he was suddenly towering over me, already mid-swing. I’d already known he’d be fast, but I did not even have time to react. But, once again, lady fortune smiled upon me, and Caedus barreled past me, shredding a wide swath of ground in the process. It would appear that he hadn’t quite adjusted to his newfound power yet, but there was no doubt in my mind that this wouldn’t last long. I let out a string of curses and got my ass into gear by putting up my shield. Why I kept forgetting to do that was beyond me; my life was at stake here!
Not sparing Caedus a second glance, I teleported away before he had a chance to gather himself and adjust, reappearing as high up as the dome would let me. It took me a moment to track down my previous position, but before I could even turn around properly to take a look, my void feelers were screaming at me. A massive ice spear was coming at me and was mere moments away from hitting me, so I teleported once more in a panic. I appeared at the top of the mountain, just in time to witness the ice spear crashing into the ceiling in a massive explosion of ice. Fucking hell!
A howl made me refocus on Caedus, who was still in the plains area. For some reason, my ears sealed themselves off, and I realized that I’d been forced to look over there. A faint shimmer gave away that the Caedus down there was nothing but an illusion, my void feelers picking up the real deal shortly after. My eyes snapped over to where I could clearly see him with void sight, only to realize he was completely invisible to my regular eyes. He apparently realized that the jig was up, swinging his front claws to send out several blades of energy flying my way while howling once more. The howl was probably supposed to stun me, but with my recently sealed ears, it failed to take effect, and I managed to teleport away once more.
I couldn’t help but think that this fight was getting out of hand as I reappeared at the bottom of the lake. Giant impaler was my only chance at victory, but to get a proper hit, I not only needed a few seconds to cast the massively complicated spell, but keep Caedus in place long enough to actually hit him with the damn thing. The problem was that I wasn’t getting any time to even try. All I could do was snap together a teleport spell in a panic while I was chased down like a scurrying rat.
I had hoped that the bottom of the lake would provide me with the opportunity I so desperately needed, but an icicle crashing into the murky ground a few meters away from me dashed that hope. Still, he wasn’t coming down here and didn’t know my exact location, so maybe I could use this after all. I started swimming as if my life depended on it, zigging and zagging while desperately constructing the spell matrix for giant impaler. Step one was getting the matrix as close to done as I could. I kept dodging various ice spells with the help of my void feelers while working on the spell and finally taking a second to think my plan through properly.
There was no proper time to care about anything else but the essentials, so I’d need to completely abandon my offensive and focus on evading. Next to my spell preparations, I needed to have a teleport at the ready at all times, and a backup void jump just in case the teleport got blocked. Hopefully, the backup would work in case the teleport didn’t. Aside from that, I needed to periodically reapply my poison. Every single bit of damage was a precious commodity, and while there was no way in hell I could keep him in the domain, at least some damage would accumulate over time.
Once the spell was ready, I would need to use my new temporary skill to stop Caedus from moving. But, of course, there were several problems with that as well. First of all, to apply the stun effect, I needed to win a battle of wills. I had no idea how said battle would manifest itself, and if I failed, there would be a two-minute cooldown. Every time I failed, I’d need to spend two minutes evading a roided-up, bloodthirsty killing machine, which was less than ideal. Then there was the fact that the buff only lasted for ten minutes. Considering some time had already passed, I was getting four chances at best to pull this off.
All in all, my odds were looking pretty bleak. But hell, if there was one thing I learned as a gambler, it was that when the risk was high, so was the payout. And as long as there was a chance, I would bet on myself. Every. Single. Goddamn. Time.
I was really hoping that I could at least complete the spell matrix for giant impaler while hiding in the lake, but it would appear that I was out of time. All the ice spells populating the bottom were starting to freeze the water down there, forcing me higher up. The higher I was forced, the more accurate Caedus’ shots got, until eventually, I had no other choice but to move once more. I had to focus my entire being on my spells, lest I accidentally drop the half-built matrix while building and activating the teleport, but I made it happen and reappeared deep in the forest area.
I activated my speed skill, rush, and used the leap skill to move as soon as I reappeared, fully expecting to get attacked the moment I did. And I turned out to be completely correct. A massive beam of light tore through the entire forest, originating from the lake area, devastating a large swath of trees. I cursed and scrambled to move further away while carefully continuing to build giant impaler. I was in the middle of lamenting that all of my stealth skills were magic, since I couldn’t afford to focus on more spells right now, but could really need them right now.
Just to prove my point, Caedus announced his arrival by barreling through the trees like they were twigs. I could barely follow his movements when I combined the information I got from my eyes and void feelers, as, instead of coming straight for me, he whipped around and launched a mass of hair at me. His fur was oddly rigid on his body, and the movement launched thousands of tiny hair-sized blades in my direction. Unwilling to test what a ridiculous mass of attacks would do to my mana reserves if it hit my shield, I teleported once again.
I once again appeared on the mountain and immediately started making my way down and away from the forest area, intending to put the mountain between Caedus and me. It seemed to work for a few seconds, since no attack came, but my peace and quiet didn’t last long. The mad wolf literally burst out of a cliffside further down the mountain, apparently having dug through instead of going over to save time. He shook himself once to get rid of the debris and locked onto me almost immediately after.
“You have to be kidding me…”
Caedus barked, and the shockwave it created blasted literal tons of rock my way, the crazy wolf close behind. Thankfully, compared to the other times he came for me, I had a second to spare, so instead of teleporting right away, I managed to hit him with a prepared poison assassination, before a void jump portal appeared before me and took me to the very edge of the arena behind the mountain. I had to scramble immediately as a staccato of icicles crashed into the arena's forcefield, barely managing to avoid getting hit several times. As soon as Caedus got within reach of my feelers, I teleported once again, this time to the complete opposite of the arena.
Caedus was simply too fast at this point, barely giving me time to do anything, and his seemingly bottomless well of skills made it easy for him to keep the pressure up without pause, but even in this state, he’d need at least a handful of seconds to cross the entirety of the arena. Precious seconds that I used to frantically work on the spell matrix. Another hole was blasted in the side of the mountain as I could vaguely see a black dot shoot out of it, rushing my way at a truly ludicrous speed. But I finally managed to complete the damn spell matrix. The next step was pumping it full of mana, of which it needed a stupid amount. Even with all of my MP reduction passives, I could only cast the spell a single time with my current reserves. I could literally not afford to miss, so I had to be absolutely sure I could hit my opponent before firing it off.
Caedus was going so fast, he ran in a straight line at me over the lake, uncaring that he wasn’t on solid ground anymore. Not wanting to deal with another powerful attack, I teleported at the first sign of a skill being used, reappearing behind the mountain, forcing Caedus to cross the entirety of the arena once again. I really thought this was the best I could do in this situation, but as it turned out, Caedus hadn’t completely lost his mind due to the buff.
As soon as I reappeared, a magic circle lit up where I stood. I barely had time to notice before the damn thing exploded and sent me flying, ripping out a big chunk of my MP that my shield drew to defend me. Note to self, don’t teleport to any spot I’ve previously stood on. I’d be annoyed at the missing MP, but I was casting most spells with my VMP right now, only really needing the regular MP for the big spell. Which meant I had a good amount of MP to spare for defense.
I had to kite Caedus around the arena twice more, fighting for my life the entire way, before I finally got the spell to where I could activate it at a moment's notice. A quick glance at the window for my buff revealed that only a minute and a half had passed so far, which threw me for a loop. I felt like I’d been locked into this fight for hours, and I could already feel the onset of mental exhaustion. All that aside, it was finally time to start my first attempt at fighting back.
With no clue how the temporary skill actually functioned, my next teleport took me a few meters above Caedus, and I immediately activated the skill.
==========================================================================
Slaughter’s Menace (D)
Target your killing intent towards a creature. Should you win the battle of wills, the target creature will be inflicted with the fear status effect for ten seconds, as well as the stun status effect for 3 seconds.
Cooldown: 2 minutes.
==========================================================================
For the first time in this battle, Caedus froze. The fight did not go on break, though, not at all; it merely shifted somewhere else. Before activating the skill, I took all of my boiled-over emotions, my desire to survive, my wish to remove this insane wolf from existence, and my bloodlust and unleashed it the second I activated the skill, throwing it all at my opponent. Our wills clashed, and to my surprise, it was a fairly even fight. To my surprise, due to the skill, I got a proper look at Caedus current mentality.
Just as I’d suspected, the truly conscious part of him had clocked out early. What was left was a fairly intelligent animal, hell-bent on death and destruction. With me being the only target in range, all of its efforts were concentrated on me, and me alone. The will fighting back against mine was fairly simple, but so one-dimensionally focused on one thing, that it barely managed to rebuff me.
The skill failed to take hold, and I vanished with a curse.
I had been so goddamn close! Just a little more, and I could’ve ended things right then and there, but instead I was forced to dodge the relentless, deadly attacks for two more minutes. The next two minutes went past in a blur, as I had to dodge an seemingly inexhaustible amount of skills and spells. I was forced to teleport away every few seconds, which was whittling away at my VMP more than I’d liked. Even with all the cost reductions I’d going on, there was a very real chance that I’d need to follow up the giant impaler with more attacks, and at this rate I simply couldn’t afford to drag this out any longer. By my estimations, I could at most do one more cooldown round like this before I’d fall into an uncomfortable MP deficit.
So, as the cooldown was ticking down to zero, I resolved myself that this next one wasn’t going to fail. I had almost done it on my first try, and now I knew what to expect. All I needed was a little push to get myself over the line. A plan was slowly beginning to form in my mind that would help me get there. It was a little stupid and came out to little more than juvenile harassment, but at this point, I’d do anything to win this. I’d gotten pretty used to keeping the complete spell matrix at the ready and stable, which allowed me a tiny bit of leeway regarding the casting of other spells, which I’d need to take full advantage of.
And then it finally happened, the skill came off cooldown.
I’d just avoided a lightning-fast combination attack with a cheeky void portal and teleported to the center of the arena right after. Caedus, in his buff addled state, may be incredibly fast and powerful, but he was also predictable. So, it came as no surprise when he suddenly jumped out of a nearby shadow to get at me. Another teleport took me to the ceiling of the dome, where I immediately started shooting low-powered, wind-infused magical bolts toward Caedus on the ground. Just as predicted, he had stayed right there, firing several spells my way that I barely managed to avoid. I fired about twenty wind bolts before I teleported right behind him and activated the skill once more.
The battle of wills engaged once more, this time I added my growing frustration into the mix, and my hidden weapon: void pressure! I’d all but forgotten about the skill that let me exhibit the pressure of a void emperor, since all it did was slightly inconvenience my opponents at best. But right now, that was exactly what I needed. I pushed hard against Caedus’ will, putting my entire being into the push, when the magical bolts I’d shot earlier finally arrived. Some of them had collided with Caedus’s own spells, and some of them plain missed, but three of them actually hit.
Now, magical bolt was just about the weakest spell in existence, and to an existence like Caedus, meant nothing. But they were annoying and disrespectful. And to make matters worse, a lucky hit straight to his sensitive nose made his concentration falter for a tiny moment. A devastating mistake that I immediately pounced on, overwhelming his resistance and getting the skill to take hold.
Caedus visibly tensed up, his eyes suddenly full of fear toward me, yet he didn’t move a single inch, unable to do anything due to the stun status. Not wasting any time, I finally completed the complex spell I’d held onto for so long, a massive weight falling off my mental shoulders as the spell snapped into place.
A massive, ethereal spear appeared in the air above Caedus, hanging up there for a second like the arbiter of doom. I anxiously distanced myself a little, the one second feeling like half an eternity, until the spear moved. With the devastating force of an SSS-tier spell, it crashed down like a meteor, impaling Caedus. The tip of the spear was almost as large as Caedus, doing untold amounts of damage in a single hit and pinning him to the ground. Next to the pinned status effect, the spell also inflicted bleed. And, oh boy, could you tell. Giant impaler had punched a huge hole into Caedus's torso, and blood was vacating his body at an astonishing rate.
But, as expected, he was still alive. I wasn’t certain how long the pinned status effect would hold for, but I wouldn’t leave anything up to chance at this point. An ultra-powered poison domain enveloped Caedus, burning my MP by the thousands, accompanied by a barrage of void javelins, void lasers, void rends, lava torrents, poison explosions, and poison ballistas. I unloaded everything I had and then some into the pinned wolf, screaming out my emotions along with the spells the entire time.
I vaguely registered a kill notification at some point, but I didn’t stop. Spells rained down in an unending stream until my tank was empty and I couldn’t give any more. I landed on the ground with a wet, exhausted squelch, breathing heavily as I looked at the literal crater where Caedus had been moments earlier. Not even blood remained, erased by the lithany of explosive spells. Instead, the bottom of the crater was filled with a layer of bubbling lava.
I stared at the crater for a long while, until reality finally sank in. I did it! I won!
When I arrived at the eighth layer, I’d expected a smooth completion with no complications, but what awaited me instead was one of my most difficult experiences to date. Sure, I’d won, but it once again put my win over the tier twelve monster into perspective. I’d only really managed to eke out a win there because the matchup was heavily stacked in my favor. Compared to Caedus, who was of the same tier as me, the fight against the dragon had almost been easy.
My win, this time, relied entirely upon luck.
I wouldn’t go so far as to discredit my own abilities, far from it. But objectively, once Caedus received the buff, my defeat had been all but cemented. Yet, a string of lucky coincidences had been what allowed me to pull through. I stared at my luck attribute for a few long moments, thinking that, just maybe, I should put some more of my free points into the stat, instead of pumping everything into intelligence and wisdom.
I eventually calmed down, taking a deep breath before finally checking out the system messages that begged for my attention.
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“YYYYYYYYYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!”
The whole bar erupted in cheers, as did the rest of the city, when Gary nailed Caedus with an insane spell. SSS-tier spells were incredibly rare, even more so when cast by a single mage, and most asphons had never seen a spell of that magnitude. Asphons hugged each other and laughed, some glasses mysteriously shattered against a wall, which nobody wanted to take credit for when an angry bartender tried to shout over the chaos.
The odds, as far as betting was concerned, were stacked in Gary's favor. As such, the payout wasn’t anything crazy, but a lot of asphons had bet a lot of money, which meant everybody present had just won big. But for some, that was even more true than for others. Orbos was jumping around wildly, dragging an equally happy Andrius along as they celebrated their windfall, and even Nimma and Redax couldn’t help but celebrate a little at their friend overcoming such an ordeal. And also the money they’d just won.
But to everyone’s surprise, the one celebrating the hardest was Lophan. He’d jumped onto his table and was screaming his lungs out, shouting Gary’s praises and how he’d name his firstborn after him, erect statues all over, and many more unsavory things, all while Linny attempted to calm him down. Curious about what this was all about, Nimma went over there to ask.
“Lophan!!” Nimma had to shout to be heard over the crowd. “What’s going on?”
“Nimma!!” Lophan swung around and almost hit Linny with his tail, grabbing Nimma by the shoulders and shaking her happily. “Gary did it! He won! Can you believe it?”
“I can, I watched it happen,” Nimma managed to eke out while Lophan was laughing like a madman. “Why are you so happy over some money? Were you in debt or something?”
“HAHAHA! Me in debt? I’m the king of a country! No, I didn’t bet something as simple as money!” Lophan finally let go of Nimma, spreading his arms wide, vaguely gesturing at everything. “I’ve bet the whole country on Gary winning!”
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Quest complete!
Rewards:
Main Quest Token
Upgrade to Traveler Tier 2
Access to the Traveler Identification screen
Teleport to a traveler world of your choice
==========================================================================
Looking at the reward screen for the quest, it almost felt ridiculous that I didn’t get anything extra for completing it. This quest had almost ruined me. I’d given it my all, yet all I got was what was promised, as if I hadn’t just won a grueling fight to the death. But, on second thought, the whole point of this layer was to pit monsters against each other in a grueling fight to the death. And, while these rewards didn’t increase my personal strength, they represented so much more than an increase in power.
They allowed me to leave this planet and properly join the Traveler Initiative.
I guess there was also the singular level I’d gained from fighting, but that felt more like an afterthought than anything else. The main quest token had been silently added to my inventory, and I curiously took it out to inspect. The token was made out of some vibrant blue stone, with an odd pattern engraved on it that I could not make any sense of. I turned it around every which way, but found nothing of note, so I chucked it back into my inventory. Surely there was some use to it that I’d find out about once I left.
As promised, my status now proudly displayed my traveler tier as two. As far as I could tell, aside from the number, nothing else changed with it. Of more interest was the button that appeared next to it, reading as “Traveler ID”. Upon mentally clicking on it, a new window opened displaying a very abridged version of my status. Included on it were my name, current tier, my race, a free space for home planet, and a free space for guild affiliation. It was a fairly simple affair, presumably functioning as exactly what it said on the tin: identification. The most interesting thing about it was that it stated my race to be voidling, instead of emperor voidling.
I closed down the window, coming to the last reward, the right to leave the planet. It had been a while since I saw a ridiculously large system window, but I once again came face to face with one, this time presenting a slew of planets to choose from. Interestingly enough, every single one of them was called “Traveler Hub World”, followed by a number. The system refused to give me any more information about any of them, which made me wonder why I was even getting to pick.
But, for now, I closed the window as I didn’t feel ready to move on quite yet.
For starters, I was about to travel into the great unknown. Presumably, I was going to a safe place, but I would like to be fully healed and fueled up before going anyway. It would be foolish to jump planets in an exhausted state. So for now, I went around the arena and gathered up the intact corpses of the defeated monsters, which then served as my lunch. I started meditating while letting my thoughts wander for a bit, looking back on the journey that got me to this point.
My life as Liam the human seemed so far away now, even though it hadn’t even been two years yet. I had changed so much over my time on Suigoss that I was literally unrecognizable. And not just in the way I looked, but also the way I thought and behaved. As a human, I’d been a worthless lowlife that clung to a desperate need to prove himself by gambling, of all things. I had been wasting away, slowly walking my way toward an early grave.
Now, I was a powerful monster capable of great destruction. And, I almost couldn’t believe I was able to say this, somewhat of a hero to a country's worth of aliens. But not only had I grown in power, but also as a person. I was no longer the bitter, single-minded guy who pushed everyone away. Looking back at my past me from Earth felt embarrassing, and in that moment, I wanted nothing more than to return and apologize to my family for everything I’ve put them through. Although I had the vague feeling that they probably wouldn’t take too kindly to an eldritch nightmare factory showing up unannounced and claiming to be their dead relative.
I wonder… did they even care that I’d died? Or were they relieved?
I shook myself to clear my head. Thoughts like that were self-destructive, according to my therapist. I needed to look at the bright things in life, instead of focusing on things I could not influence at all. Which, right now, meant focusing on the fact that I was about to travel to a new planet! If that wasn’t exciting, I didn’t know what was. I’d finally get to properly join the traveler initiative, whatever that meant. I’d meet new people, see new things, experience new cultures, and get to travel to a whole slew of fascinating planets.
Presumably.
I spent the rest of my recovery period wondering just what it was going to be like once I finally took that final step into my new future, until I was finally topped off. I took a deep breath to center myself before opening the list of available destinations once again. Earlier, I wondered why I was getting to pick from a long list of planets I knew nothing about, but there was also the very first option in the list, which had the word “recommended” next to it. I was tempted to leave things up to luck, as I often did with lists like this, but this was the first time I’d seen the system actively recommend anything. Wherever I went, my luck would come with me either way, so I might as well go and see what this was all about.
I mentally clicked on the first option and disappeared.
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Recommended: Traveler Hub World #6439
Would you like to register yourself to this hub world and travel there?
Y/N
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