Logan didn’t know what to expect when he escaped the trial dungeon. He’d gotten away from the queen serpent by the skin of his teeth. The thing had been so enraged he wouldn’t be surprised if the cavern ceiling had caved in after being subjected to her tail bashing against everything in sight. Logan had killed her young—deposited a massive boulder onto her nest. Something like that might make her pace endlessly in front of the portal, just waiting for Logan to return to bite his head off.
And yet at the same time, he knew that Ernie had transformed into an undead octopus. To do that, surely the queen serpent must have moved around.
There were no guarantees which meant that as Logan exited the portal, he kept his senses alert, his ten-inch-long talons ready, his teeth grinding in tension.
[Portal activated!]
[Thank you for doing business with us, Idiot! We hope you enjoyed your trial!]
There was a flash of light. Logan went through a disorienting sensation of going from a room full of oxygen to water on all sides. Without [Deepwater Explorer], the crushing depth would have done him in way before he’d drown. He’d made a good decision by keeping the skill.
Logan scanned his surroundings, a tightness in his gut, his hand ready to swing like a lion’s paw.
The deactivated portal let out a blinding glow that illuminated everything around him.
There were signs of destruction—stalactites had fallen from the ceiling, creating a pile of rock and rubble. There were deep gouges on the walls as if the back of the serpent’s tail had done a number.
But other than the occasional dust that floated through the water, he couldn’t see anything.
No fish, no queen serpent, no Ernie.
Gradually, his tension dropped, and his muscles loosened as he pushed up with his foot and launched into a dive towards the tunnel entrance. More than anything, he was surprised to feel a smidgen of disappointment. After the System had locked his skills, he felt the need to express his anger in carnage.
Still, it might be a good thing. Until he unlocked [Life Fabricator] and [Liche Devourer] he was at a disadvantage. After the tripling effect of the True Grit Rings, he knew he had a weapon in his fist alone, but he’d prefer to have access to his most valuable skill before challenging a monster like the serpent queen.
Logan rushed through the tunnel with an unsettled feeling as if a stone had lodged in his stomach. At first, he thought it might be the stress of killing Asthea that had caught up with him, but then he realized the hollow feeling wasn’t from Asthea.
It was from Ernie.
Ernie had been chattering in his ear non-stop the last time he was here, and without him, the depths of the lake were a lonely, lonely place. But if Ernie wasn’t here—and neither was the serpent—where was he? Logan had encountered an undead sturgeon back at the underwater milk truck by chance. He had no idea how to search for the undead otherwise.
Worst of all, he could only devote time to search for a day at best, otherwise he’d miss Lara at Richton’s Tomb. He needed to get back to the surface so he could turn on his phone. It had been ages since he’d last heard from her, and tension was starting to ratchet up at just the thought of the things that could have happened in his absence. At least he knew there were no more purge events. They only had to worry about monsters and other people from here on out.
Logan made his way through the long tunnel until he came across the olivine deposit. It sparkled like a rainbow prism, the vibrant colors illuminating the tunnel.
Logan scanned it with [Idiot’s Inspect].
[Olivine. A mineral that absorbs carbon when crushed and scattered on the ground. Awards available upon mineral carbonation deployment.]
Huh. The System hadn’t given him KarmaCoin for scanning it with [Idiot’s Inspect]. Maybe it was a one-time discovery, one-time reward type of thing? The message indicated that there was a potential for more KarmaCoin, and he hadn’t forgotten his Save Humanity Quest. Anything that absorbed carbon was valuable.
The problem was that he was in the middle of a tunnel. If he took chunks of this stuff by utilizing his spatial collar, he could just as likely cause a cave-in.
He could skim it though, like scraping off latte foam. Concentrating on the nearest emerald sparkling surface, Logan scrunched his eyebrows as he willed a handful into his spatial collar. There was a scraping sound, a sound of rock shifting, and then an inch of olivine disappeared.
Eyeing the tunnel and examining it with a bated breath, Logan waited for any signs of shifting. After a minute, he deflated. So far, so good.
Now he just needed to skim off the rest of the tunnel.
Logan got to work.
***
He’d made good headway on the tunnel by skimming the olivine from every available surface. He had a pile inside his spatial storage that must have weighed a ton, a dump truck worth of material. Not a bad haul.
And even better, even though he’d spent what had to be a half an hour, he hadn’t attracted the attention of either the serpent queen or any other monsters. He was in the clear.
Logan exited the tunnel and entered the lake, glancing up at the surface way up above. The water was murky, the current stagnant, but he could see a faint glow of light. Logan kicked with—
Wait.
His talons twitching, Logan paused with his senses on high alert. Off in the distance, something was approaching. Faint at first, and then crystalizing. Before the integration, it would have been a speck and impossible to see, but with his high perception, he could make out the details.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
It was huge, the size of a beluga whale, but it had ratty, bone-like fins as well as a large shark fin on the top. Its pointy head looked like a crocodile, but its eyes were the size of glass jars. It was pale, black bones clear under translucent skin.
An undead sturgeon.
Logan grinned, a thrill jolting through him. It was still too far away to use [Idiot’s Inspect], but based on the last sturgeon, its level shouldn’t give him any trouble. There was nothing better than releasing his anger and obtaining XP. [Life Fabricator] and [Liche Devourer] wouldn’t unlock by themselves.
Logan swam with massive pulls of his arms and kicks of his legs, his high agility and strength letting him shoot through the water like a fish. The thing was going to get it; he would savage it with his talons…
He’d…
Ernie?!
On the back of the sturgeon, an octopus clung to the ratty black shark fin, two tentacles waving excitedly in the air. The octopus looked like Ernie… skin fluctuating blue and green, two horns on his head sticking up in eagerness.
Logan wanted to shout in excitement, a lightness in his limbs and an overall feeling of weightlessness sufficing him as joy took over, but he held back. It had to be too good to be true! Ernie was supposed to be a zombie!
As they grew closer, his lips parted with anticipation, Logan scanned them with [Idiot’s Inspect].
[Undead Mutated Sturgeon: Level 39. A bottom feeder by nature, warped by its transformation to turn everything it touches into undead minions who cling to the bottom of the depths, luring in prey to add to the minion army.]
[Highest Stat: Endurance. Characteristics: Loyalty, even-tempered. Hidden name: Larry.]
[Cephalopod Liche: Level 65. Master of all within its domain and commander of the minion army.]
[Highest Stat: Endurance. Characteristics: Murderous nature, bonded companion. Hidden name: I Rival All.]
[Idiot’s Inspect] had upgraded with his grade which gave him more detail. Now, he could see characteristics and a hidden name. Logan had to wonder if [Identify] worked the same since Asthea had seen his hidden ‘Idiot’ name while she was lower leveled.
But more importantly, if he trusted what the System was telling him, it was Ernie.
What the hell was he doing on the back of a sturgeon? Why did he look like Ernie and not some mindless zombie? Had the System been lying? But if that was the case, why did Logan receive his Audacious Corpse title?
Logan kept a wary eye on the sturgeon, making sure to be ready to retreat if it kept coming and didn’t stop. With hope in his heart, Logan mentally sent, “Ernie?”
The sturgeon paused about ten feet away from Logan. Ernie launched himself off its back and shot over to Logan like a rocket. “Fleshy human, fleshy human! I missed you!”
Logan’s tension still hadn’t dropped. That was Ernie’s mental voice—it looked like Ernie; he wanted to believe it was Ernie, but at the same time…
He had been on top of an undead sturgeon.
With his tentacles twitching, his eyes alight, Ernie jumped towards him.
“Ernie, stay back!”
Ernie came to an offended stop, his tentacles twitching in the water and his eyes wide. “…Logan?”
Logan ran a careful eye over him. His colors had dampened as if reflecting his emotions. His eyes looked the same; his skin wasn’t decaying; he wasn’t drooling as if he were itching to chomp onto Logan. In all the zombie movies and shows he’d watched with Lara, there had never been an infected zombie that didn’t act like… well, a zombie. Was it possible that a ‘Liche’ was different?
But there was another possibility. Ernie could be under the control of the serpent queen, lulling Logan into a false sense of security so that he could infect him and lure him into her sphere. There was no way her anger hadn’t lessened. Not after Logan had killed her hatchlings.
Logan found it difficult to believe that Ernie hadn’t suffered her wrath after pushing Logan through the portal. Tentacles could be regrown—he’d seen that with [Regenerate]—but for Ernie to come out unscathed and a higher level than the last time he saw him without any impacts…
It defied belief.
“How do I know that’s really you? That you’re in control of your own faculties? There was no way you escaped the serpent queen without… something happening.”
Ernie huffed and then bobbed his head with a small grin, his eyes going far away as if he were reliving a memory that made him puff with pride. “It is a tale for the ages! A tale passed from mouth to mouth, generation to generation. All of my brethren will glow with triumph, as it is I, Ernie, who truly rivals all!”
Logan’s tension didn’t lesson, but he did lower his faceplate, letting the sand dissolve around him so Ernie could look him full in the face and not through a barrier. Logan wanted to look at him with no filter between them.
“What happened?” asked Logan.
“Well…” Ernie hedged. “Things didn’t go so well after you left. Not very well at all.” Ernie shuddered and seemed to curl in on himself. “It was…” He glanced behind him at the sturgeon and seemed to realize that he had an audience other than Logan. “But it was fine! For I triumphed in the end!” Twirling in the water and doing a bob, Ernie inch forward, eager. “Yes? Yes yes yes! Look at my mightiness, Logan! Look at my triumph!”
“You look the same.”
Ernie’s eyes gleamed. “But I’m not the same, I’m a mighty, mighty murderous liche!”
“I get that, Ernie. That’s the problem.”
“Oh no oh no oh no. It’s a triumph!” He lowered his voice into a whisper. “I have minions. Minions! Minions to do my bidding, minions that follow my orders! I will soon have a throne and my enemies will cower at my feet. We will slaughter everything in a hailstorm of blood and guts. All shall cower and fear us as we…”
As Ernie continued, Logan shook his head and closed his eyes, taking a relieved breath. In the list of what he needed to tackle, saving Ernie had been at the top. To go from that burden to knowing that Ernie had saved himself? And come out from a tough situation better than ever? It was mind boggling.
A feeling of giddiness made him want to slump in place, his relief so strong it was breathtaking. “You really are still you.”
“Of course I’m me! I rival all!”
“This minion thing though… you’re not going around and infecting humans, are you?”
Ernie gasped. “No humans! Yet. For I knew you wouldn’t like it! But Ernie is very stealthy, very smart with his strategy! It’s a sneaky revolution from within! The queen serpent is a bully! A very, very bad ruler. She dominated her minions with violence. No passion! No loyalty! And that’s where I came in.”
His tentacles jabbing the water as if going after invisible fish, Ernie danced, so excited he couldn’t hold back. “She thinks I’m a minion, nothing special! No agency! And yet, the mighty all knowing being knew I was no mere peon and gave me a sneaky, stealthy power! Behold, my first recruit!” Ernie gestured to the undead sturgeon with an excited jab of a tentacle. “This is Larry.”
The undead sturgeon’s tail swayed from side to side, and it looked at Ernie with an adoring, worshipful glance.
Logan was deadpan. “Larry.”
Ernie bobbed his head. “Larry, the Undead Sturgeon, my mighty steed! Don’t be fooled by his rough exterior! He doesn’t talk yet, but we’re getting there! Yes yes yes, I have fifty-one of them, fifty-one! With more to come. For now, they pretend they obey the queen, lying in wait until my army is a match for hers.” The horns on Ernie’s head jumped up and down. “The queen serpent is not very bright. She is strong, but she’s stupid. And now, with you here, we can…”
Ernie gasped. “There’s something different about you.” Rushing forward, he twirled around Logan, scanning him with eyes full of glee. “Levels? Levels! I’m so proud of you, Logan! I knew you’d go far! Together, we can slaughter the queen serpent, I can take over all her minions, and then we can go avenge my brethren! Yes yes yes. The nasty sky people will swim in a plethora of blood and guts! They will whimper at the sight of us! Me, on my chariot of steed, you donning your mighty armour of doom! We will—”
“Ernie.” Logan took a deep breath. “It really is you.”
“Of course it’s me. How could you have doubts?”
Laughing, Logan ran a hand through his hair and pinched his nose. “I should have known. You rival all, after all. A queen serpent over a hundred levels above you? A zombie infection? That’s nothing, isn’t it, you impossible thing.”
Ernie gave him a careful glance. “To the surface we shall go! You are not making much sense. Besides, all those levels must have given you a big head!”