Chapter 66

Neverending Wars (V)

The entrance was a gaping maw that stretched to twenty feet of height, wide enough to berth four grown men, with a gilded arch coming together into the shape of an eskyrion, a mythical beast found occasionally in the Tunnels that resembled a mix of a jaguar and a snake. There were six guards lazily stationed either at or near the entrance, some nodding off, some talking between themselves, and some staring off into the sky.

Inside, darkness surged; there was only the draft, one which Ethan used to slowly navigate through the dark corridors and toward the spiral staircase that led upstairs. Within moments, darkness dissipated and a flint of light illuminated a sprawling floor–it was like a floor of a mall, with bridges connecting opposite ends that seemed to feature all manner of odd shops and buildings, all embedded into the limestone-laden facade of the entire palace.

Ethan wasn’t particularly surprised; he’d seen hundreds of different Kingdoms and Empires within the Tunnels, all with their own little spins and quirks on architecture and design. While the particularity of turning a palace into a semi-mall was a bit unique, it wasn’t to the point where Ethan couldn’t navigate it. If anything, it told him precisely where to go–up. Chances were that the Guardian was stationed on a floor below the Emperor and the Empress, which meant navigating through six more staircases, past the rather beautiful-looking garden, and a slew of other chambers for either High Nobility or Lesser Royalty.

The winding corridors were all decorated, torched with the fire of the lanterns, illuminating the limestone walls. Portraits each more beautiful than the last hung to the side, interspersed with epic depictions of battles long mythologised. There were Dragons sweeping across a legion of soldiers, decimating them; there were Warlocks, unholy, basking in the bewilderment of dark magic; there were Necros, the bedevilled ghouls who sullied the dead by tormenting them with life; there were Paladins, men and women of holy, drowning in the golden hue of hallowed light, ushering the new age of divine.

However, whether any of these depictions were true or not… there was no way to say. Just like on Earth, every Tunnel was a world of legends and myths, of stories, passed down to children to feast on the figures they aspired to be. Was there ever an Emperor who bravely fought an army all by himself, defending his people? Probably not–such heroics were virtually impossible. But it did not hurt to sell children the tales of the grand–so as to inspire them to strive toward it, rather than to settle for reality.

Ethan passed them in silence, only briefly glancing at them. The journey was rather long as the Palace was rather large. However, he eventually found himself on a deftly guarded floor–there were Knights stationed in front of every chamber, gilded in gold and silver, plated from head to toe, swords in their arms held steady, their gazes unflinching. They were not like the guards below, lazy and dozy–they were staunch, unbending, hawk-eyed.

Though not impossible, the whole ordeal got magnitudes more difficult. Not only did Ethan not know which chamber housed the Guardian, but it also meant that he'd have to somehow incapacitate the Knight before sneaking into the chamber. No, perhaps… it was impossible.

Rough estimates on his end put Levels of all Knights in the late 30s to early 40s. If he were to fight them in the open, perhaps even one against 4-5, he was confident in defeating them. However, this wasn't that scenario–he'd have to quickly kill one and then proceed to kill someone even stronger before the remaining ones converged on top of him.

He sat in the shadows of the corridor that bled into the large hall where all the chambers were located in an oval-shaped pattern. There was a gash at the centre of the hall, one that was consistently there through every floor, flanked by adult-sized rails. He began to consolidate possible plans.

The first one was the most obvious one–distraction. If he could cause a large enough distraction, the Knights might leave their posts. However, he had suspicions; chances were that the Knights would double down on their orders and protect their people with even more attention.

The second one was the 'mad rush'--simply disregarding everything and trying to complete his mission faster than the others could catch him. It was particularly risky as he didn't know the Guardian's Level. If they were sub-60, Ethan was semi-confident in at least wounding them enough to the level where they wouldn't be able to decimate Altukeen forces. However, anything past Level 60, which marked the threshold of the 'First Law', was impossible.

Regardless, Ethan very much doubted that the Guardian was Level 60 and above. In fact, there were only three 'monsters' in the Tunnels of the First Generation that met that rule, and, in his past life, there was no info on the Guardian being Level 60.

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The third potential plan was to continue with stealth–he could bounce down a floor and climb through the gash, minimising the chances of being caught; however, as soon as he killed the Knight, the plan would turn into a mad dash once again.

He sighed silently, uncertain. Was he rushing it? He was. He was still worried about Ronald and Layla. He also didn’t like having things spiral out of his control; the hasty preparation to enter the Tunnel, the confrontation and even confirmation of the doppelganger, and the sinking feeling of the world changing well beyond what it should was… suffocating to someone like him.

There were plenty of ways to clear this Tunnel, without a doubt, but because he was rushing it, that ‘plenty’ became ‘a few’. The safest way to end all of this was to simply sell out Altukeens–the Empire would take care of them with ease, and the Tunnel would close. They’d likely get minimal to no rewards at all, but in exchange would have closed the Tunnel down swiftly. Ethan wanted the rewards, however. Especially now, with the world changing so swiftly, his knowledge was beginning to feel like a sinking asset. He was still quite weak, and if all he had was his potential… it wasn’t enough.

The reason why he took it slowly and why he didn't rush anything at first was because he 'knew' there'd be time–it would be years before the world would truly start falling apart beyond the point of repair, so he simply planned on growing silently in the shadows, thieving items, titles, and people that he recalled being of grave importance. But the Scorched Savanna was the warning–or, rather, a premonition of things to come. It caused him to panic, to swiftly start rearranging his plans. That was also why he wanted to go after Delilah so quickly, why he planned on immediately going for southern Spain, and why he was desperate to bruteforce the systematically weak part of his growth.

He was strong, but only in comparison to other people. Right now, even with all his knowledge and savviness, he was stuck–there was no good road to take. But he had to take the more difficult one because he needed to grow. He needed items, titles, Levels–he needed to unlock new spells, new systems–Systems!

Ethan hurriedly dug through the menus and found it–Interdimensional Market. It was very much worthless to him now… but that was only if he didn’t want to suffer a terrible deal. He was digging out ‘pebbles’ from every Kaynul that he found as well as any monster that had them, but his current ‘wealth’ was beyond minimal.

The Market’s interface was rather simple–there were 6 tabs altogether: Buy, Sell, Rent, Auction, and two tabs that currently had ‘????’ as names. As far as Ethan recalled, the first one was ‘Black Market’ and the second one was ‘Cosmic Market’, each of which would be unlocked much further down the line.

There was however a rather massive issue–until Level 50, the Market could only be used ‘intradimensionally’, a coin termed specifically for this one instance, meaning that he’d only be able to trade with other people from Earth. However, as with everything… there was an exception. And that exception could be dug out with a price.

Though he hated it with every fibre of his being, he felt he had no other choice at the moment–he sacrificed 15 points of Vitality to 'buy' a right for one sale inter-dimensionally. Losing 180 Max Health for something that felt so pointless was exceedingly and catatonically depressing, but he comforted himself with a simple truth: Vitality was the easiest stat to replenish, especially for a Class like his that liked items with a lot of Vitality on them.

He had 18 ‘Pearls’ in total to use. The currency itself was rather unstable as its worth was entirely dependent on how desperate a seller was to unload something versus just how much the buyer needed it. In a very rough exchange, 1 Pearl was worth roughly half a kilo of pure gold, or somewhere around 30k~ dollars. Naturally, it was impossible to actually convert it into that much money, especially before its value stabilised at least ever-so-slightly, which wouldn’t happen for another decade.

Sighing, he began to scroll through the listings–there were millions of them, so simply ‘window shopping’ on the Market was a huge waste of time. The best way to buy something on the Market was to know what you needed–and Ethan needed something big.

He narrowed down the categories into 'Scrolls', 'Offensive', and 'Small Area', and set the price to be below 20 Pearls. Suddenly, millions of listings evaporated into thin air, leaving behind only 17 listings, 13 of which were 19 Pearls, 2 of which were 17 Pearls, and 2 of which were 10 Pearls.

Unlike his expectations, it turned out that he was quite lucky–one of the items listed for 10 Pearls was a scroll called ‘Scroll of Madness’. Ethan bought it without a second thought and it appeared in his inventory.

[Scroll of Madness]

Rarity: Common

Level: 10

Special Effect: Inflict ‘Madness’ in a small target area. Targets inflicted with ‘Madness’ will go Berserk for 60 seconds. Does not work on those who understood the First Law.

The reason why the ‘Scroll of Madness’ was valued so lowly was because it wasn’t a targeted scroll–meaning that it could be dodged. As such, it was virtually useless in real battle, and as it could be resisted by anyone who understood the First Law, i.e. anyone Level 60 and above, its uses were very situational and very limited–such as Ethan’s current one. If he could make the Guardian go Berserk for 60 seconds, it would be enough to deplete the Knight Forces of the city as well as either kill or wound the Guardian.

Was it worth the whole 180 Health? To Ethan, it wasn’t. Health was his main stat, something that he needed to be escalating further and further, and shaving it from 568 to 388 felt abysmal. However…

"Shit," he mumbled to himself. This was a bad habit he picked up–panicking and overcompensating when things spiralled out of his control. All he could hope for, now, was that the rewards would refund at least 50% of his investment. Otherwise… it truly would have been a waste.