Chapter 62

Half an hour later, Red was out of MP and they decided to retreat for the day. The hunt had gone well; at first, Leon had tried to just cut off the frog tongues, thinking it would leave them harmless. But as with Trouble, they could jump, and pretty far at that. The next attempt had gone better, and he’d worked out a system that worked for them. As the frogs attacked, he simply grabbed their tongues, one by one, until he held them all in his hands. Red could then smash them, and when all frogs were gone, Leon would take out the toad, who would stay passive until all its minions were eaten. It was fascinating to see how the groups worked in a way, and this seemed to work better than holding down a struggling wolf. The loot Red got was for the frogs she took down, and Leon got the loot from the toad itself. The method would get cheaper the more monsters they slayed though, because grabbing the tongues meant automatic poisoning. Leon was happy about the immunity period after the potion, or it wouldn’t have been worth doing this at all. During the strategic fighting, Leon had kept a watchful eye on the forest, trying to see if the snake would come out again. But if it was close by, it didn’t make any noticeable movements.

“That was amazing,” Red said as they entered Pura. “I haven’t made this much progress in a day in months!”

Leon smiled. “Happy to help. It was also fun for me, so thanks.” He could think of a certain rabbit who was likely sulking in his inventory now, though. How a rabbit could feel such battle-glee was beyond him. Maybe, considering how today went, it would be okay for her to come out. The only worry was when the toad decided to play the game, too. And the bats, of course. Trouble was likely lighter than Red, but how strong was the bat? Leon sighed. There was also another issue on his mind.

“I think Ava might leave our party if we force Finn to leave,” he said. “And from what you told me about Finn, about how it eventually leads to death, I think I should try to stop it.”

Red frowned, but kept walking with him over the bridge. “Okay?”

“I’m sorry to ask when you told me not to, but what made your sister want to follow Finn?”

Red clenched her jaw and sucked in a breath. “You know when he came up to us when we ate breakfast?”

Leon nodded. After she’d left, he’d insulted her. “Sure.”

“He said the same thing to my sister. That he could raise her to a different level.” Red sighed. “And he did. She went further up into the city in such a short amount of time that I still wonder how it happened. She surpassed his level in a month, and just kept getting levels.”

Leon frowned. “Finn doesn’t have the power to do that. Otherwise, he would have done it himself.”

Red nodded. “Yeah, that doesn’t make much sense, does it? And yet, it happened.”

“But…” the question was on the tip of his tongue, but he knew he stood on shaky ground already. He wanted to know more about her sister, and how she knew she’s dead. Red had no reason to lie, but if the sister had gotten so many more levels, she would have moved into Bellwater, where Red couldn’t go. Yet, she was convinced.

“I don’t know how you can stop her,” Red said when Leon didn’t continue. “Not if she’s willing to do anything to reach the top of the tower.”

“You didn’t take that road,” Leon said. “What stopped you?”

They passed Hert’s workshop. The sky had begun to darken. “I…” Red started. She scratched at her neck. “I don’t know. You know how you can get a gut feeling about something? That’s why. I think something fishy was in play, and I wanted no part. My sister always took the easy way out, not thinking about the consequences of her actions. When…” Red cleared her throat. “I’ll get up there on my own, somehow.”

They walked into the square, and Leon thought about what he’d heard. Maybe that was why Ava sucked up to Finn to the degree that she did. Maybe he’d promised her a way to level up quickly, too. But it didn’t make any sense. Finn was still level 12, and that was way too low for someone to make such promises, and to then actually fulfil them. He’d need to be much higher leveled. Maybe he was and had lied to Leon about it? That also made little sense, considering the monsters they’d met, and Finn would have bragged about it. One could think he’d kept the lie going for whatever reason, but Leon knew Finn. That just wasn’t possible.

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Leon opened the door to the inn, and Red walked through. She continued up the stairs with the promise to meet up tomorrow again, and Leon wondered what to do. His fatigue was decently low considering all the fighting he’d done today, so he should go train. Maybe return to the forest and try to fight with Trouble for a while to see how it went. But for some reason, he just felt very tired. The in-party fighting, the meeting with the group in the wheat field, the poison scare with Trouble, and Red’s revelation. Leon sighed, just wanting to sit down. Some tables had cleared, and even though he didn’t feel completely comfortable with it, he sat down at one of them. Half a minute later, someone with a dress and an apron approached him. She had a very straight body, without any curving, making the dress look like it didn’t quite fit her. Even though she was quite long, the hem of the dress swept the floor. She had her hair in a ponytail, and a porcelain mask covered her face.

“Hi,” she said, the words getting a slight eco from inside the mask. “What can I get you?”

The green eyes looking out from the slits made shivers run down Leon’s spine, but he forced a smile. “Hi. Nila, right?”

“Right.”

“Um,” Leon started. “I’d like some dinner, if possible, but I also want to talk to Crag.”

“Dinner is fine. What do you wish to ask of master?” She tilted her head, and Leon saw thick leather straps binding the mask to her.

“Just to rent a room and buy food for a week.”

A box popped up, asking if he wanted to pay a week’s rent and two meals a day for seven days. He frowned and accepted to pay the amount. Even with the two toads, his balance sunk to an alarming level.

“I will come with your dinner,” Nila said and walked off.

Leon looked after her, frowning. Weird. He couldn’t say Crag was completely normal either, but for a game who made their NPCs look like players, this was far out of the norm. He rubbed his eyebrows. This entire season was so weird, he wasn’t sure what to make of it. When he’d first arrived in Pura, he thought it was just some simple game world, taken from some randomly generated medieval town, but the more he got to know, the more confused he grew. It felt like this city had a lot more mystery than it had the right to have, based on the basic things he’d seen when he’d arrived. He looked up at the smell of food and saw Nila, already walking away. Weird. Why had everything become so stupidly weird?

*****

Memories from the tower stirred in his head; his sister, his mother, Sarah. Then the pictures changed, showing the pier he’d seen in the tower. All of his family, his mother, Jane, his aunts and cousins, stood in a line, facing the sea. A white coffin rose from the depths, and the lid swung open. Leon’s mother walked forward, into the box, and the lid slammed shut.

“This is how it ends,” his family said, and the coffin tipped backwards into the water and sank. A short while later, a new coffin rose from the depths.

His sister stepped inside. “I’m coming to you, Leon.”

The lid slammed shut. Leon tried running forward, but couldn’t move. A golden text appeared in front of him.

‘IT'S TOO HARD TO SAVE ANY OF THEM.'

He sank down on his knees as the coffin hit the water. Another coffin rose.

A searing pain shot through his arm as a wolf tore into it. Another bit into the other, and they pulled him back, and he looked into the cloudless sky. He tried pulling himself free, but his body wouldn’t respond. A third and a fourth took hold of his legs and pulled.

A comet of silver butterflies came straight toward him, and Ai sat down on his stomach. She smiled and leaned down to whisper in his ear. “You’re my experiment, and I’ll do what I want with you.”

She grabbed his throat, and his body followed her into the air. The wolves’ fangs ripped down his muscles, and they tried to keep hold of him, but they fell. Leon struggled for air and saw the sky come closer. Then she released him.

He plummeted to the ground, somehow still alive, but with bones protruding from his skin. The old man from the level 90 dungeon walked up to him, holding a knife. A box appeared.

Dungeon keeper Prelock thinks the meat looks tasty.

The man kneeled beside Leon and cut into his leg, pulling at the broken bone. Leon screamed as the bone popped loose, and the man bit into it.

“Why don’t we just kill him? He will be more trouble in the future,” a voice said to the side. It was the water mage from the labyrinth.

“Perhaps you’re right,” the fire mage said, and a ball of fire formed in his hand.

“Hold on a second,” Finn said, stepping in front of them. “I’ve wanted to do this for a long, long time.” Finn kneeled beside his head, barely noticing the crunching of bones beside him. “You’ll regret crossing me,” he said. “She’s my lifeline, and you’re ruining it. But you can’t do that if you’re dead, can you?”

He drew his dagger and Leon stared at him as the blade touched his throat.

“You will not stop me,” Leon said. “You’ll die if you try.”

Finn laughed. “Good luck with that.”