November 2, 2022
Day 13
----------------------------------------
A threat much bigger than any they had ever faced was looming on the horizon, and Rahul was worried that his teammates did not see it.
They were all worried about the alpha, and were of course right to be worried. After all, it had almost killed Rahul, and was a dangerous foe. The other three alphas were bound to be just as dangerous.
But the alphas, strong as they were, were just ephemeral foes that would be gone the moment the team decided to exit the dungeon.
Once they bested the dungeon, Rahul was sure his friends would start worrying about the neighboring bastions next. They'll try to figure out a way to deal with them without loss of life. It was of course both important and necessary to do that.
But that too was an ephemeral concern. With all their sentinels, they would easily defeat the bastions. Martin had said as much the first time he appeared. The tutorial was rigged in favor of the humans because of the castle and the sentinels.
These dangers and challenges were not what made Rahul push himself so hard and repeatedly risk his life in the dungeon.
It was the system notification that they got when they had spawned this tiered dungeon that had rattled Rahul.
He was terrified by the implications of the world congress, implications that his friends had failed to realize.
That notification was a promise. A promise of a foe that was not mindless, one that would not be so easily defeated, and one that would persist until he and his team gave up their bastion, died, or established themselves as an undefeatable and peerless force.
Don't worry about the world congress, Martin had dismissively said and brushed aside the issue. But Rahul had worried, and as he ran through the forest and mindlessly cut through an endless army of crocodiles, he knew he had been right to do so.
Things had never gone well for a weak nation in possession of valuable resources in the entirety of our civilization's recorded history, and that wasn't about to change now.
It was clear as day to Rahul that dungeons were among the most valuable resource on the post-integration earth.
This dungeon had already proven to be an incredible leveling opportunity for the four of them, and that was when they had come in not knowing what to expect and with little preparation. Given better preparations, which is to say given more stamina potions, this endless scourge of reptiles in itself would have allowed them all to level up a dozen times.
Rahul shuddered to imagine how much use a government or an organized military could get out of a dungeon. They could send an advance party to explore the dungeon, find out all about the weakness and strengths of the various beasts that prowled there, and all other useful intel.
Then, they could send in troops with appropriate gear, potions, rations, and strategies, and level them up by the millions.
Valuable as the dungeon was, its benefits were not unconditional. There were riders to its utility.
As Martin had mentioned, a dungeon needed to be the right grade and level to be useful. An E-grade dungeon would be of no immediate use to the armies of the Earth, nor would an F-grade dungeon with level 50 beasts.
With this dungeon, a tiered dungeon, there were no such problems. One could take a freshly recruited army and raise it to level 30 in a week, with no riders and no terms and conditions. Just equip your army with weapons and potions, train them till level 9, and push them into the tiered dungeon. Some would die, but most would return, now level 20. Repeat the exercise with the second tier of the dungeon, and watch them emerge at level 30 the next time.
Rahul had not done the exact math, and his level estimates could be way off, but he felt he was only being conservative in his estimates. In any case, he would fight his way through the dungeon and find out for himself just what was possible.
But the very idea that what they were doing could be replicated with a billion-strong army was terrifying. With the use of exploratory teams that did recon and created study material to orient subsequent teams, Rahul believed that his level 30 estimate might be peanuts compared to what can be achieved.
All that meant just one thing.
After the world congress, the stage would be set for a new world order to emerge. And every country and organization in contention would know that the way to the top is through this tiered dungeon.
Rahul did not know what will happen at the world congress.
But he could predict the outcome.
Rahul would have to level up, and soon.
Because once the tutorial ends and the leaders of the world all figure out what the tiered dungeon signifies, their island would become the most coveted piece of land on the planet.
Rahul did not know how long it'll take, or what system mechanics will make it possible. But he was certain of one fact.
Hordes of mindless instinctual beasts would soon be the least of their worries. It'd be the biggest powers in the world that would siege the Laysan Bastion.
And Rahul would make sure he and his team were ready for them.
It was with these thoughts that Rahul made his way back to the clearing and to Maya, where he shared these worries and worked together with her to come up with a strategy to get as many experience points as possible.
----------------------------------------
Rahul panted as he felled the last tree, and looked at the path he had opened up from the edge of the forest to the clearing at the center.
"This will have to do, I'm out of stamina", he said, breathing heavily.
Maya nodded and handed him the last remaining stamina potion. Charlie had to use the other one to help her keep the reptiles at bay while Rahul worked on his woodcutting project.
"I'll get to work then."
Maya said, and upon receiving nods from Charlie and Rahul, started hurling fireballs at the forest around her.
Rahul saw her grim expression and spoke.
"Thank you for agreeing to this. Please don't worry about the crocodiles. The fire will spread slowly, and they will have enough time to get out of the way and find an alternate path to the clearing."
Maya nodded but her expression didn't change.
"How could I not agree, after everything you told me about the world congress. It all makes sense. I just hope you're right, about the crocodiles getting out of the way and finding an alternate path, I mean. Not the world congress. About that, I hope you're wrong."
Rahul nodded.
"I hope so too, but it's unlikely. In such a ruthless world, none of the world powers would act altruistically and let us keep this dungeon."
Rahul put aside those future worries and thought about their current plan.
There were a lot of things that could go wrong here.
Whatever impulse drove the crocodiles to rush to the clearing may be powerful enough to force them to wade through the fire to get here. In that case, they would die horribly and Maya would be crushed by the suffering she caused.
The analytical part of Rahul knew it wasn't the worst outcome. Maya would net many levels worth of experience if that happened. But he hoped that nothing of the sort would happen. No amount of experience could justify this kind of emotional trauma.
Another possibility was that the fire would simply dissuade the reptiles from attacking, and they would lose out on all the experience altogether. Now that could be called the worst outcome.
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
So, Rahul, Maya, and Charlie all waited. Waited for the fire to spread, as they killed any reptiles that emerged from the forest.
As they had hoped, the fire spread, and the number of reptiles emerging from the forest reduced to a trickle, and then stopped altogether.
Rahul looked at Maya and raised his eyes questioningly.
"No, I haven't got even a single kill notification."
Maya replied to the unspoken question, relief evident on her face.
The same relief could not be found on Rahul or Charlie's faces. They had both gambled a lot of stamina away on this strategy. Every one of Rahul's swings that felled a tree could have killed an enemy instead.
As they all waited patiently, the clearing grew eerily silent, the only sounds that of metal clashing against metal as Matt and the alpha traded blows, stuck in their perpetual stalemate.
It has been fifteen minutes since I woke up. How has Matt been able to keep up that trance of his for so long?
Rahul wondered, as he looked enviously at Matt as he fluidly moved and kept up with the lightning-fast attacks of the alpha. Soon he was transfixed by the battle and the dance that the alpha and Matt engaged in, a symphony of attacks, feints, blocks, and evasions their only music.
He watched for some time, noticing the patterns in which the alpha moved, seeing the repetitions, and realizing that its attacks were choreographed and predictable.
The moment he felt the ground shake, Rahul knew his plan had worked. He looked away from the battle and instead focused on the path he had painstakingly cleared.
Crocodiles. Hundreds of them. Streaming through the only safe path in the middle of the blazing forest, trying to enter the clearing.
Rahul gulped down the stamina potion and spoke.
"Maya, Charlie, I'm going in. Remember what we discussed. Once I go into the trance, I will only kill. Making sure that Matt is safe and that no wall of corpses forms is your responsibility."
Maya and Charlie nodded, and Rahul sprinted in the direction of the approaching crocodiles, feeling the air searing around him from the trees burning on both sides.
A regular human might have fainted in that scorching heat, but with the supernatural vitality Rahul had, it was only uncomfortable.
Rahul met the first reptile and his sword stabbed it straight through its brain in a motion that Rahul had repeated hundreds of times today.
You have killed a Level 8 Saltwater Crocodile. 80 experience earned.
His hands moved again as Rahul quickly dispatched two more reptiles in the same way.
You have killed a Level 7 Saltwater Crocodile. 70 experience earned.
You have killed a Level 9 Saltwater Crocodile. 90 experience earned.
More crocodiles came and replaced the ones that fell and died just as quickly, and Rahul felt himself get into the rhythm of carnage. He mechanically dropped his one-handed sword and dual-wielded shortswords instead, immediately feeling more at ease.
You have killed a Level 8 Saltwater Crocodile. 80 experience earned.
You have killed a Level 9 Saltwater Crocodile. 90 experience earned.
You have killed a Level 6 Saltwater Crocodile. 60 experience earned.
Slowly, the crocodiles in front of him, the swords in his hands, and the fire around him, all started to fade, yet Rahul's hands kept moving and his blades kept finding targets.
The image shifted, and Rahul was back on top of the castle wall, looking at another trap, another funnel built to coerce mindless beasts to sprint right to their deaths.
All because the bastion battle did not leave retreat as an option for the aggressor.
Rahul watched tens of thousands of frogs around the island all moving towards the only section of the wall not surrounded by burning corpses, fireballs, or raining arrows. Given the choice of burning to death and walking into a swinging sword, the frogs had chosen the latter and threw themselves at Rahul's swinging blade.
And just like the frogs, the crocodiles were under compulsion to enter the clearing, no matter the danger. Between the blazing inferno of the forest, and a lone swordsman holding the line, their decision was simple. The crocodiles followed in the footsteps of the frogs all the way to their deaths.
As Rahul progressively entered the cold trance, the images kept shifting and he found himself in two places at once.
One swing of his sword cut the tendons off a climbing frog, and he watched it fall down, another frog taking its place, just as a stab found the sword he held in his right hand sinking deep into the head of a crocodile, while the one in his left parried a blow.
The scenes repeated, melding into each other until the reptiles and the amphibians became one. Then the details grew vague, fading away, until at last Rahul was aware of nothing at all.
----------------------------------------
Maya and Charlie sat on a log and chatted.
"The two have been at it for an hour already. How is it even possible."
Maya said, glancing at Rahul and Matt.
Charlie agreed.
"It's weird. Sometimes the laws of this multiverse and the system itself feel so intuitive and natural. Vitality makes us healthy and sturdy, endurance increases our stamina. Quite reasonable. And then at other times, things happen that turn it all around. How exactly does this trance work? They are still moving and fighting. Where is all that energy coming from? I know they'll both go for a long nap afterward, but that doesn't mean they should be able to fight for an hour without pausing even to catch their breath. "
Maya shrugged.
"At least my magic has behaved reasonably so far."
She crossed her fingers behind her back and shot another glance at Rahul, and saw him retreating from the crocodiles.
"It looks like his trance is over."
----------------------------------------
Rahul came to his senses and heard deafening battle music playing in his ears, a thrumming of drums accompanying his every motion.
He also felt a burning pain on his right shoulder and looked at it. Rahul saw momentum rolling so rapidly that the heat from the friction was blistering the nearby skin. It hurt a lot, but Rahul stopped himself from immediately reaching for the health potion. The thrashing he got from the reptile had torn open his back, stomach, and wrists, costing the group two healing potions.
A minor burn did not qualify as an emergency, and Rahul was not going to waste the precious leftover potions on it. He was going to fall asleep soon anyways, he just had to bear the pain for a minute. He willed his presence to move slightly away from his shoulder, and momentum complied.
Problem solved.
Rahul felt many notifications tugging at the edge of his awareness but ignored them.
His job wasn't done. There were still reptiles coming at him, and Rahul never stopped cutting and stabbing as he looked at his status screen.
My stamina is zero, the lingering effects of the trance are probably the only thing keeping me going, but I'll crash the moment I stop moving. Even if I do keep moving, my body will give out soon. I have to somehow use all the built-up momentum before that happens. It'd be a damn shame to let it all go to waste.
Rahul looked around.
To his left and right, the fire in the forests had receded and given way to red-hot embers on the ground. He noticed it wasn't just trees that had burned there, but also the corpses of the reptiles he had slain.
Maya and Charlie's doing.
Ahead of Rahul, countless reptiles still kept streaming in. There was a sea of reptiles, all the way from the marshes in the distance to the point where he stood at the edge of the clearing.
There must be several hundred crocodiles here. Possibly even a thousand.
Rahul had a bout of inspiration. He came up with an attack he had no rational reason to believe would work. But his instinct screamed that it would.
Rahul trusted that instinct and retreated fifty feet to create some breathing room. He sheathed his shortswords and held a larger sword in a tight two-handed grip.
Then he closed his eyes and swung in a wide horizontal arc, visualizing an attack that would emanate from his sword and spread, with the intent to cut every obstacle in the way.
He felt the ball on his shoulders slow down and the battle music grow distant, as two more notifications tugged at him.
He opened his eyes, and for an instant, nothing happened.
Then Rahul saw a white translucent arc traveling away from him, in the direction of his swing. It grew wider and moved faster with every passing moment.
The arc encountered its first obstacle and bisected it into two clean halves. The bottom half of the crocodile lifelessly hit the ground, while the top half slowly slid off.
You have killed a Level 9 Saltwater Crocodile. 90 experience earned.
A kill notification followed, the first in an avalanche of notifications.
To Rahul's disappointment, the arc fizzled out before it reached the swamp. It had grown very wide by then, and there were a lot of crocodiles in the swamp.
Rahul felt another notification. It'd have to wait in line with the others.
He was running on the last dregs of energy, but there was still enough momentum left in him. More than enough to finish some unfinished business.
Rahul turned around and sprinted toward the alpha.
Seeing its prey dash toward it, the alpha too pulled back from fighting Matt and ran at Rahul. It seemed to have a preference for the one that got away.
The two met, and the alpha whipped its tail horizontally at him in a half-hearted and simple opening attack.
Not as much an attack as a greeting to an old friend really, before the real fight began.
Rahul had no time to exchange pleasantries.
He did not dodge and instead stepped right into the blow as he swung his sword to cut at the base of the tail, using every last bit of momentum to enhance both his speed and strength.
This time it was the alpha that saw a blur.
First, the blade of Rahul's sword fell at his feet, shattered into uncountable pieces as if it were as brittle as a brick.
An instant later, the reptile's severed tail hit the ground with a loud thump.
Finally, Rahul himself fell, exhausted to his core, ready to sleep for the next twenty-four hours.
The last thing he saw before he lost consciousness was Matt driving his sword into the bewildered reptile's head.
Just as Rahul had hoped. He smiled as his thoughts faded into oblivion, relieved that Matt delivered the final blow. After all the fighting he had done, Rahul had dreaded his momentum-enhanced swing accidentally killing the alpha and stealing Matt's rightful kill.
Rahul had wanted to tell his team to take that metallic tail with them when they exited the dungeon, but never got a chance as he faded into a deep slumber.