Langa stepped forward, launching a rush of quick slashes at Fidser, but he either blocked or parried them with his sword. In the end, Langa had to retreat backwards because another flaming bolt was flying at him.
Fidser moved with practised experience, he seemed adept at hand-to-hand combat, and he circled Langa with a calm look in his eye. “That skill book that you said you’re after is my ticket to freedom. You’re going to die here, and I won't allow you to get in my way,” he said.
“We’ll see about that,” Langa answered, talking straight out of his arse, hoping to keep the lie up a bit longer.
They both ran towards each other, their movements quick, with Fidser trying to close in for swift sword strikes, but Langa kept his range and thrust forward with Tonare, determined to keep control of the fight while also moving out of the eaglekin’s range
However, Fidser gracefully darted around Langa's thrusts, his footwork many times superior to Langa's. Suddenly, he lunged forward, aiming a deadly stab directly at Langa's chest. Time seemed to slow down as Langa's instincts kicked in, but he wasn’t using his attribute this time, only adrenaline. He swiftly dove down, narrowly avoiding the blow. The tip of Fidser's sword grazed Langa's shoulder, leaving a shallow cut as a reminder of how close he had been. With his next swing, he aimed to keep Fidser at bay, exploiting the glaive’s longer reach.
"Not bad, but you're no match for me," Fidser said, and then he muttered something, and the ground under Langa shook, and he was unable to keep his footing as the shaking ground pushed him some distance away from the goblinkin.
Fortunately, the skill also caught Fidser's eaglekin comrade, who had gotten up and had been about to punch Langa from the side, and they both fell to the ground, the eagle kin rolling away from him, and towards Garlina. A flaming bolt pierced Langa’s shoulder, and he rolled on the ground to avoid the other bolts that were flying at him. Muttering angrily, he got back to his feet and tried to adapt to the shaking terrain, using his agility as much as possible to move towards Garlina as she seemed to be getting ready to use her fireball skill. He had to take her out first.
He Flash Stepped up, trying to make his way towards her, but the skill's range was too short to reach her at once, and the eaglekin charged forward, the clinking of his plate armour audible with each step. He stood directly in Langa’s way, protecting Garlina. Langa had no time for this, and he was annoyed because Fidser was also chasing him. This eaglekin was slow as hell since he couldn't use his wings well in this enclosed space, so Langa just sidestepped him and landed in front of Garlina.
By this time, Garlina had finished casting her spell, and a bunch of fireballs, maybe ten in total, surrounded her, protecting her and making it difficult for Langa to reach her without getting burnt. The eaglekin had managed to buy her time.
Fidser cast his shaking ground skill again, making Langa unsteady on his feet, so he had to act fast. A thrill flowed through him as he moved, if he took one wrong step right now, he could be impaled by Fidset's sword, burnt by Garlina's fireballs, or struck by the eaglekin's physical blows. Langa didn't know why being in danger always exhilarated him; was it perhaps because it was proof that he was alive? Either way, his life was on the line, so in one swift movement, he pulled out his second Exploding Wind Orb and infused it with his mana before throwing it at Garlina. The air inside it was crackling with his lightning mana. If only Langa knew how to accurately control his mana infusion, he would have been able to regulate the amount of lightning he could emit.
The moment that the orb detonated, a tiny streak of lightning hit Garlina, as the blast of air exacerbated the flames in her fireballs, and she caught fire, screaming.
"Garlina!" Fidser screamed in horror.
Langa had seen that she had one more respawn, so he did not care if she died. Instead, the cruelty of her plight had shocked her two comrades, and he had to attack while they were stunned.
In a display of sheer speed, Langa closed the distance, catching the eaglekin by surprise, as he'd expected him to keep his distance with the spear. His shoulder was aching, but he paid it no mind. Langa stabbed deep and accurately into the joint behind his knee, where the plate armour was weak. The eaglekin cried out in pain as he lost his balance, falling to the ground, and Langa then drove his spear deep into the eaglekin’s unprotected wings, drawing blood and causing him to fall down screaming in pain.
Fidser's sword came rushing towards him, and Langa tried to block it with Tonare, not knowing that this was a feint. The sword cut into his side right below the ribs, and Langa yelled, quickly using Flash Step to flee from any more strikes. He landed in the smoke next to Garlina's body. Even as the fire died down, Garlina’s burnt body lay unmoving on the ground. She did not seem dead, just badly burnt, and he couldn't risk her healing herself and rejoining the fight.
Langa, clutching his painful side, walked up to her body, then clasped the Deiform Amulet on Garlina’s wrist, and her unconscious body disappeared. A new Deiform Amulet appeared in his hand. What a strange artefact, it really did replicate. In her body's place, a tile card appeared, and Langa bent down to pick it up. On the tile was a picture of Garlina’s face, and below that, words were written.
[Non-Player Garlina Sikhones has been transferred by the Deiform Amulet to the Guardians’ 1st Floor Carcere holding cell. To collect your bounty of (7) Silver, present this tile at any Guardians Guild Outpost.]
Langa barely had any time to put the tile away before Grion Fidser gaped at him in shock. “You’re a Guardian? Fuck! No wonder the void veil isn't affecting you. I thought Amalgam sent you after me! Shit,” he said, and started to run into a tunnel beyond the one where they were fighting.
Langa downed an inferior health potion and, reminding himself not to think about how he was in an enclosed, dark space, followed after him. The tunnels seemed to extend further into the depths, occasionally widening into larger chambers with lucent crystals hanging overhead. Echoes of both of their footsteps filled the passageway as Langa ran after Fidser, giving the whole cave an eerie feeling.
Fidser ran into another tunnel hastily, but in terms of speed, there was no way that he could stay ahead of Langa. So he stopped, turned around, and brandished the sword that he was holding, “Terraquassum!” he shouted an incantation. The sword glowed as green glyphs filled its surface, and a defeaning sonic wave erupted from the sword, blaring into Langa’s ears.
The unexpected sound dizzied Langa, causing him to lose his balance and stumble slightly. Ears bleeding, he tried to regain his bearings. So, was this guy not trying to run at all? Did he just want to bait Langa into running after him?
Seeing him stumble, Fidser charged straight at him, his sword raised. The sword was aimed straight for his neck with no hesitation behind the strike, and if it had been Langa a week ago, he would have fallen prey to the attack easily. However, this Langa had trained with Liv in the tutorial, and he’d learned to react, even from a bad position, lifting his glaive hastily up, and parrying the sword strike.
It was not a smooth transition, but his spearmanship was an S-Rank skill, and he’d spent days in the training room, trying to improve it. After his successful parry, Langa Flash Stepped back to create some range for himself and his spear and put the sword at a disadvantage. However, his opponent seemed to have a decent weapon skill as well. A clash of metal against metal echoed in the tunnel, as Langa moved swiftly, lunging forward, attempting to pierce the goblinkin through his leather armour, but Fidser calmly braced himself, demeanour unchanged. As the spear thrust towards him, he muttered an incantation. Once more, the ground beneath them quivered, causing Langa to stumble once again, his attack losing its power.
Not one to miss this opportunity, Fidser swung his sword, stabbing straight into Langa’s leg. The pitiful defence of his armour held up for only a second before the blade pierced his flesh. It hurt, but in the past few days, Langa had experienced much worse pain than a simple sword wound that took only 20 HP. He knew that Fidser was probably aiming to reduce his mobility by crippling his leg, but Langa had two legs, and he kicked hard into Fidser’s abdomen with his good leg before truly losing his balance and hitting the hard stone ground of the tunnel painfully.
“Persistent, aren’t you?” Fidser snapped through gritted teeth as he staggered slightly from the kick.
Langa wanted to take out another health potion from his inventory, but he doubted that Fidser would stand still and let him heal himself. He needed to end this fight as quickly as possible. Langa's heart pounded in his chest, adrenaline fuelling him. He knew he had to change his strategy if he wanted to win the battle. He unleashed a series of fast strikes with Tonare, no technique, just straight up a torrent of spear thrusts—to overwhelm Fidser with speed and aggression. Fidser, caught off guard by Langa's sudden change in tactics, momentarily faltered, but then, just as quickly, regained his calm.
Langa decided that he needed to use Thunderbird’s Stunning Strike and end this now. The skill would kill Fidser, but as long as Langa put the Deiform Amulet on him, he would respawn in a Guardians Guild holding cell. This battle had been mildly stimulating. Fidser was strong, yes, but after being told that tiers made all the difference, Langa had been expecting a much harder fight. The reason he hadn't used his weapon's skill or his attribute was because it would be like killing a mosquito with a machine gun.
This battle was almost over, but Fidser’s composure was not shaken, and, eyes focused ahead, he pulled out a small gem from his inventory. Langa started running. Fidser clutched the gem in his hand, and then he muttered something, causing the ground beneath Langa to surge upward, creating a barrier of solid rock in front of him. This barrier separated the two of them. It wasn't the first time in his life that Langa had hit a wall, but this was a physical one, and he'd been running at full speed, so he understandably screamed out loudly when his entire body collided with a solid wall.
"Yhoo! Fucking hell!" he cursed.
From his place on the ground, clutching his bleeding nose, Langa swore in frustration and took out another health potion, downing it all at once. He felt his HP rise, felt his body start to heal from the collision, and felt the wound on his leg heal up as well. Had this bastard been hiding a skill like this this whole time? Langa frowned, however, when he saw that on the solid wall, black strands were circulating the wall, in a way that reminded him of when maestrils absorbed karma.
Now healed up, Langa took a step back and then held Tonare tightly in both hands. He activated Flash Step and landed right in front of the stone wall again, driving Tonare deep into it, hoping the extra damage from Flash Step could cut through it.
It did, with the force of the attack blasting the centre part of the wall into various pieces of rock, and Langa passed through the hole left by the glaive. He found his opponent kneeling on the ground on the other side, panting heavily. Langa was stunned, not just because it looked like the gem that the goblinkin was holding in his hands was sending painful black strands of karma into his body, giving him black lines that contrasted his skin and seemed to follow his veins all over his body, but also because he had expected him to have erected the wall, and then ran away.
Instead, Fidser’s eyes were bloodshot, and his green skin was darkened by those black lines. Was it the effects of the Void Pearl that made him like this? It seemed as if he'd used its power to make that wall, but it took a lot out of him. He growled in anger when he saw Langa.
“HOW!” Fidser shouted as he stood up. As Langa readied his spear, he saw the goblinkin’s eyes glowing a mixture of black and green as he tapped into his earth magic holding the Void Pearl, causing the rocks that were scattered around the tunnel to levitate and swirl around him.
"Oh, shit,” Langa muttered under his breath as the rocky projectiles hurtled towards him. They came from all directions and were all sorts of sizes, from tiny little stones to larger rocks, and by destroying the stone barrier, Langa had given Fidser more ammunition to attack him with.
In the minute that followed, Fidser found Langa to be quite a nimble adversary, dodging and weaving efficiently through the chaotic barrage of rocks. He was moving quickly from side to side in order to avoid hitting and being hit by the rocks. He ducked and dodged with his speed, using the steps that Liv had taught him, the steps that he had spent the entire tutorial practising by dodging the training dummies. He used Flash Step as well when it was off cool-down.
[The high-tier constellation: Swiftfoot Anitari, is impressed with your movements. He wonders if he should offer you a movement skill]
[The Diverse Vodun Pantheon god: Xêbioso; Vodun of Thunder and Speed, enjoys your quick play-style]
“You! How did you do that? What the hell kind of movement skill do you have?” The goblinkin shouted in outrage, realising that he'd wasted all of his mana for nothing when not a single one of his flying rocks touched Langa.
“I don't have one,” Langa said, breathing heavily. He was out of stamina, so he could not use his attribute, even if he wanted to. He also could not use Flash Step either, so it would just have to be a plain old Thunderbird’s Stunning Strike. “I’m hungry, so let's end this.”
Fidser made the ground tremor again, but it was too late; Langa was already in the air, leaping towards him. He landed right in front of him and plunged Tonare into his chest, activating the skill. Lightning pulsed on the spear, and it struck Fidser, burning his armour, and where his chest was before, there was only a hole now. The spear had burned right through his chest and emerged on the other side.
It was both a critical hit and an instant kill.
[Critical hit!! (Grion Fidser) - 579 HP
Lightning discipline damage: (Grion Fidser) - 579 HP
Instant kill achieved.
Backlash (Langa Zulu) - 55HP]
This was a waste, even without the extra damage from his full lightning affinity, Langa would have instakilled Fidser. The damage was double now with full lightning affinity, but thankfully, the extra damage from his affinity did not scale with the backlash. He had been worried about that, but if it was like this, that was better. It still caused him plenty of pain, but it could have been worse. This was just the base of Thunderbird's Stunning Strike too, and he could not imagine the devastating damage he could deal if he coupled it with Flash Step and his attribute. He drank his last health potion and started to heal. In the tutorial, he had only used three health potions in seven days, but today alone, he was on his third one. He desperately needed a self-healing skill.
The black Void Pearl had fallen to the ground, and Langa picked it up. It honestly looked like a normal black pearl that one could find on a necklace. Black strands filtered out of the Void Pearl into Langa's hand, and it felt like a rough, corrosive, fluid energy trying to crawl into his body, and he dropped like he'd been burned.
He quickly infused mana into the Deiform Ring and felt energy fill it up, and a blast of pure, unsullied white energy hit the Void Pearl, surrounding it, until it was destroyed, scattering into dust.
Under the dust, a small, broken key lay. Langa picked it up, but when he tried to scan it, it had an even stranger description than his Void Star.
[???’s Corrupted Fusion Key
Name: Amalgam’s Opus (1/4)
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
Rank: Legendary
Effects: Crafting Material for ???
Usage Restrictions: Player Only, Tier 3 and above, Darkness Resistance >/= 30%]
Langa had half a mind to just leave the key behind, he had enough problems with a Void Star whose functions he did not know. However, loot was loot, so he placed it in his inventory. The restriction said player only, but Fidser was an NPC, so what the hell was up with that? How the hell did this opus end up inside a Void Pearl anyway?
He looked down at his fallen opponent. He wasn't going to get any answers from him. The smell of burning flesh caused Langa to shudder. Logically, he knew that this person would wake up again, but he had actually killed another person with his own hands for the first time, and that made him tremble. Still, all this would be for nought if he did not arrest him, so he clasped the Deiform Amulet on the wrist of Fidser's body, and the body disappeared, leaving another tile behind, and a book.
[You have killed a level 12 Non-Player (Grion Fidser)
+480 EXP
+48 bonus EXP
+12 karma
+1 Skill Book
+1 Bounty Tile]
He decided also to check the notification for Garlina as well.
[You have defeated a level 10 Non-Player (Garlina Sikhones)
+300 EXP
+10 karma
+1 Bounty Tile]
[You have defeated (2) Tier 1 voidents
+200 karma]
[You have unlocked a new quest]
LOCKED QUEST #1
Quest Rank: Uncommon
Quest Objectives: Kill/Arrest 5 mortals designated as voidents in the Guardians Guild database Time Limit: None Quest Limitations:
Only available to neutral/positive alignment players who:
- Have killed a voident of higher level.
- Carry the Brand of corruption
- Have received the favour of The Unrivalled Tower Master
Progression: 2/5 Cautions: This is an evolving quest
Quest Rewards:
Title: Fledgeling Voident Hunter
Failure Penalty:
N/A
That was an interesting quest, and Langa was sure that as long as he stuck with the Guardians, he would be able to complete it. But what the hell did being branded by corruption mean? Why did no one in this world truly know what corruption was? And how the hell had he earned The Unrivalled's favour? The quest honestly gave him more questions than answers.
“Well, that was certainly an entertaining battle. It's been a long time since I last saw such a fast human who has only just entered Tier 1,” a voice said from behind Langa, startling him.
He turned sharply, only to find a person dressed in light cloth armour, a black jacket, black trousers, and light sandals, leaning against the wall of the cave, a smile on his face. He had light red skin, dark hair, and a short horn on his forehead. Langa tensed up and readied his spear.
“Whoa now, don't go doing anything that you'll regret,” the person said, hands up. “I'm doing you a favour here so that you don't get ahead of yourself. Go ahead, scan me.”
Langa tried to use his 'Team Player' title, but it did not work. Using the regular system scan did not work on the demonkin either. Instead, his comcer beeped, the scan triggering a match on the Guardians Guild's database. Langa gasped when he saw the man’s details.
[Wanted: Dead or Alive
Name: Perinda Housci
Designation: C-rank voident
Class: Shade Assassin
Affiliation: Vonelle Heilliege
Last known level: 23
Bounty: 4.6 Gold
Precautions: No Guardian below level 25 should engage this player.
Solo confrontations are discouraged.
No Guardian without the special stat, Perception, is to engage this player.]
The demonkin was a wanted voident, and he was a whole tier and a few more levels above Langa. His bounty alone was 4.6 Gold! That was 460 silver! That was over twenty times Fidser's bounty, making Langa wonder if this guy was twenty times stronger than Fidser. No, maybe it was because of the designation. Fidser was an F-rank voident while Perinda was a C-rank voident.
"Who the hell are you?" Langa asked warily.
"Perinda Housci, as you well know. I'm just a passerby who happened to see an interesting player, and decided to observe him," Perinda said, flashing his white fangs in a smirk. "I had some time, so I scanned and checked you out on the leaderboards."
Observing him? Langa did not loosen his grip on Tonare. What the fuck did this guy want from him? "How long have you been watching me?"
The demonkin pondered his question. "I've been following you since you attacked those guys outside the forest.” His gaze shifted to the area where Grion Fidser's body had just disappeared.
Perinda continued leaning casually against the wall, eyes on Langa. He was level 23 and Shrouded, which meant that he must have some divine skills. Langa gulped but kept his face neutral, there was no way that he could win against a guy who had apparently been following him this whole time, unnoticed.
“What do you want?” Langa asked, trying to stifle his annoyance. More than fear, he was annoyed that this person was taking time away from him. He was tired and wanted to go back to the city or the village and either rest or have a nice cold drink. He clearly wanted something, and Langa did not appreciate his leisurely demeanour.
[The Deiwos Clan God: The Sullied Demon Cloud That Overcame The Void, is watching you.]
A new deity was watching him, and it was not hard to guess that this was probably Perinda’s patron deity.
“Well, I was hired to steal that skill book. Any chance you'll hand it over without a fight?” Perinda asked, posture still relaxed.
Langa looked at the skill book in his hand and hesitated. Jandri had said that the Accari Crows had found a C-rank skill. This had to be it. His Flash Step was A-rank, and it had carried him well from the tutorial until now, so even though this skill was lower ranked, it had to be somewhat good. Anyway, with his high level, if this demonkin really wanted to, he could kill Langa and take the skill book by force, and there would be nothing that he could do to stop him.
Wait, Langa thought, remembering what Jandri had told him before about The Unrivalled’s rules, this guy couldn't take it by force.
“This is my reward for killing Fidser, and if you want it, you're going to have to kill me first… assuming that you survive the backlash of killing a player more than ten levels below you unprovoked, of course,” Langa said confidently.
“Ha!” Perinda laughed. “I know, right? I should have let you attack me earlier, then I wouldn’t lose anything from killing you. But it's fine, I can't win them all, I guess. Let’s forget about that for a second." He shrugged and then regarded Langa for a moment. "So, I watched your fights; you seem inexperienced, but you're pretty decent for a newbie, even one in the top five of your tutorial batch. How about it, do you want to ditch the Guardians and join our guild?”
“And what guild is that?” he asked. He was surprised that voidents could even be in guilds, were they not considered criminals in the Tower? This was just one more thing he needed to research on.
The demonkin lifted his hand, and there was a tattoo of a half-moon with a triangle around it tattooed on the back of his hand, “It should be on the scan. I'm in The Vonelle Heilliege Guild. We’ll treat you well, and once you reach Tier 2, you can even compete for the role of Administrator of the Ground Storey. The guild’s Chief of Staff is my star-brother, so I can put in a good word for you. How about it?” he asked.
“The Guardians’ deputy guild master came to recruit me himself, but you expect me to take your offer when you're not only a voident, but you don't have the actual power to recruit me for your guild?” It was not conceit, Langa genuinely wondered if this guy was even high enough in the guild to give him such an offer.
”What?”
He eyed Perinda suspiciously. “No thanks, I don't want to join a crazy guild that has voidents in its ranks anyway,” Langa told him flatly. He did not like the way Fidser and his cronies had treated the people of Theria's Hollow, holding them hostage. They were low-ranking voidents, so who knew what people like Perinda did? Besides, Jandri had said that Void Pearls were fed on sacrifices, so he was willing to bet that this was not someone he wanted to associate with.
A dark look crossed Perinda’s eyes as if he could not believe how easily Langa had rejected him. “How dare you insult our guild?” he said, eyes fierce, and his relaxed demeanour gone.
The atmosphere surrounding him seemed to thicken, and for some reason, Langa suddenly felt small. The weight of the demonkin’s karma pressed down on him, and he felt like the air itself was quivering. It was as if something was trying to force his will and his soul, down, but it was different from the mental attacks he'd endured before because this felt like an attack on his existence, his karma itself. He blinked, and suddenly Perinda was in front of him, his hand on Langa's shoulder. Langa staggered, and the demonkin disappeared from view.
The karma pressure throttled Langa. His heart started to beat faster, and he let out a choked breath, struggling to remain on his feet. At that moment, time came to a standstill for him, but this time the attribute was acting outside of Langa's control. He had not activated it.
Some malevolent energy came to life inside of him from his rapidly beating heart, it’s filth coursing through his veins like a flowing icy liquid and he swayed unsteadily. Whatever it was choked him, and at first, he thought that it was coming from Perinda, but it felt almost as if it was something that awoke inside him in response to the karma pressure that had been trying to push him down. He gasped, trying to push out this invasive energy with his mana, allowing it to circulate all around him desperately.
Reminiscent of his last day in the tutorial, Tonare vibrated in Langa’s hands in response to his mana, and bursts of electricity flowed from the glaive back into his body. The electricity blended into his mana as his body desperately latched onto it and it filled him, the electricity burning the sinister energy away.
[The Deiwos Clan God, The Lackadaisical Herald of The Lightning Storm, is watching you]
Time righted itself again as the attribute deactivated, and Langa staggered and coughed out blood onto the cave floor. Perinda's karma pressure was still all over the atmosphere, making him feel small, but surprisingly he could bear it now. Compared to what had just happened with the dark energy, Langa felt sure that Perinda was not a threat to his existence.
[You have been attacked by a player (13) levels above you. You are under the protection of a Sovereign Authority.]
[Sovereign Authority
Authority: ‘And the weak shall proclaim, I am strong.’
Sovereign: Order: The Unrivalled Tower Master.
Invocation: No mortal may attack another 10 levels below them from Tier 0 to Tier 4. From Tier 5 and above, no mortal may attack another (1) or more tiers below them regardless of the level difference. A protective shield will surround the lower-level player, and the higher-level player will receive a 100% - 500% reflection of their own attack as backlash damage. The higher-level player shall lose (-5) to alignment]
A wave passed over Langa, and the pressure disappeared. He was sure that most of his pain had not come from whatever Perinda had done but from his attribute. What the hell was that? He’d lost control of his attribute and it scared him a little bit. But when the Sovereign Authority covered him, he felt at ease, as if he'd not been attacked by Perinda's karma pressure or damaged by his own attribute.
Perinda, meanwhile, fell to his knees clutching his head in pain.
“Fuck!” Perinda screamed, still on the floor. “Come on, that was barely an attack. I don't know why he got injured, I only released a little bit of my karma pressure!”
[Many deities laugh at Player Perinda Housci’s predicament.]
[The Deiwos Clan God: The Sullied Demon Cloud That Overcame The Void, watches his Disciple with pity.]
[The Kwara Orisha Clan goddess: Mother of The Nine Winds And Storms, tells you to learn from this fool’s mistake, and remember that The Unrivalled does not tolerate even the smallest breakage of her rules.]
[The Deiwos Clan God: The Lackadaisical Herald of The Lightning Storm, says, 'She is just uptight about rules and very petty.']
[The Unrivalled Tower Master casts a glance at The Lackadaisical Herald, and, finding him unworthy of her attention, looks away.]
[The Deiwos Clan God: The Lackadaisical Herald of The Lightning Storm, is shocked and dejectedly retreats to his domain.]
[The Kwara Orisha Clan god: The Wild Crossroads of Raging Thunder, laughs at the Lackadaisical Herald, and advises him to look for love with deities in his own league.]
[The Famed Heavenly Scribe of Kaspso, records in The Universal Relgte that this is the 10 000 234th known time that The Unrivalled Tower Master has rejected The Lackadaisical Herald.]
What was that all about? Langa wondered, and decided not to concern himself with the drama of deities, and instead focus on what was happening now. Perinda was still kneeling on the ground, but his breath had steadied.
He sat up, leaning against the wall once more. “Asmodeus’s tits I almost died. Phew, alright, just another day of living with my life on the line, I suppose,” he said leisurely.
Langa raised his eyebrows. Was that really the reaction of someone who nearly died? Surely Perinda knew that he would receive backlash, but he'd still karma pressured him. Either this guy was stupid or crazy. Langa settled on crazy.
"Well, Langa, if you don't want to join our guild, that's fine, but why are you allowing the Guardians to set you up like this?” he asked, his grin back on his face.
Langa was just about done with this crazy guy, but he was curious about what he was talking about. “What do you mean?”
“What do I..? Man, these rogue Accari Crows are a low-level gang of voidents and red NPCs. A regular five-man team of Tier 1 Guardians could have been sent here to dispatch them. Granted, they couldn't have done it as efficiently as you did, but so what? You have to ask yourself why they didn't just do that,” Perinda said.
Hadn't Jandri said that it was because they lacked low-level Guardians for the job? Langa did not say anything though, because he was half convinced that everything coming out of this guy's mouth was bullshit, and he did not want him to think he was getting to him.
Apparently, Perinda loved the sound of his own voice, as he kept on talking. “You're recording this, right? Well, since I'm such a nice guy, I'll tell you. They sent you because everyone knows that the Accari Crows are Anarchist's little pet project. Fidser had a falling out with his superiors because he stole something from them, and the Guardians just know that his guild is going to retaliate if they go after him. Then, when that guild finds out that you have the stolen key and hunts you down for it, you're gonna go running to Guardians for help, and join them, grateful for their help.”
The key? Damn it, Langa had known from the question marks on its description that it was a troublesome item.
Perinda looked at Langa expectantly, waiting for some outrage or anger or disbelief, but if there was one thing that Langa was good at, it was pushing things to the back of his mind and pretending that everything was okay. Anyway, it wasn't like he hadn't known that the Guardians were using him. Besides, he had no reason to believe this guy.
“So?” Langa asked, face deadpan.
Perinda stared at him in blank surprise. “Did you hear what I said?”
“I did. Did you expect me to be upset because the Guardians have been taking care of me for literally one day? It doesn't matter to me if what you're saying is true or not. I don't care, I'm not here for them, I'm doing this for myself,” and my family, Langa added silently. “I know that they are using me, but so what? I already spoke to their deputy guildmaster about it. Besides, I would have helped the Guardians out anyway as thanks for them giving me warm food and a bed to sleep in.”
“You're gonna put yourself in danger for food and a blanket?” Perinda asked incredulously.
Langa bent down and finished picking up his loot. “You must have come from a world where those kinds of things were taken for granted. But not me. I come from a country where there were days when I was a child that I slept without eating, where I huddled in one tiny blanket with my nephew in the winter,” he said, giving him a fierce look. “To me, being lost in a new world, someone offering me food and shelter for free is a very big deal. I don't care what quarrel you have with the Guardians, but I'm doing what I want to do, and I won't join your guild.”
Those words left Perinda speechless for a moment, and he looked at Langa and then laughed. “Alright, you got me there. You sure do speak your mind, aren't you afraid of me?"
"No."
The demonkin shook his head in amusement. "I like you. You must complete one unclaimed dungeon to clear 1st Floor, right? Well, our guild knows the location of a few. Go to Heilliege's Gorge, and look for one of my subordinates, Sasani. Tell him I sent you.”
“I’m not-”
“Oops, I gotta go. Sounds like reinforcements are coming, you're gonna have your hands full. See you around, Langa.” With a toothy grin, the demonkin vanished into stealth, and Langa heard movement from the tunnel behind him.
Langa was not going to do what the demonkin suggested. He had no desire to associate himself with The Vonelle Heilliege Guild. Still, Perinda had been right about one thing, someone was coming. He tensed again and held on to the glaive tightly as he heard the footsteps coming closer. It sounded like multiple people were running this way, and he was worried that the reinforcements from the mine were here. His stamina was still recovering, so he would have to use the Exploding Ice Orbs, despite the backlash to him, and then he would run.