Is it just me, or has Besti been sending way more gems in the past few years?
No, I noticed that too… Makes you wonder. Where do they even get them in that giant desert?
* Conversation between two Dryadal traders
-------
Ren and I were seated on the floor in a private room in the same Japanese style Lindsey had accidentally imported so long ago. He had just finished outlining his plan, and I… had some reservations.
“When you said that you had a plan that would financially benefit both of us, I have to admit I expected a bit more…” I trailed off. “I don’t know… complexity? Pizazz?”
Ren cocked his head. “It would seem that Bestian doesn’t have a translation for that last word, but I believe I understand where you are coming from.” He shrugged. “The best plans are simple, no? The more complexities you add, the more places you give the plan to break. And I’m sure you will find plenty of places where even such a simple plan can go wrong.”
I sighed. “Okay, fair point.” I mulled it over a bit more and then continued. “I’m in for at least part of the plan. If you’re willing to fork over the funds for making new zones, I’m more than happy to see exactly how many treasure chests I can stuff into a dungeon.” Ren smiled at that, but I raised a finger. “However, as profitable as being a personal monster lure is, I don’t exactly need your help with that. The money is also not as good as you might think.”
The last part was only partially true. I distinctly recalled my days of tossing out monster lures in addition to my [Monster Magnet] perk and being able to make several thousand gold off wolves in an hour.
However, that was before Cameron cursed me and drastically slowed down the whole looting process.
“That would indeed be true if-“ Ren paused.
I raised an eyebrow. “If?”
“If-“
Fortunately, I had seen enough oaths to know what I was looking at.
I put my hand on my chin and stared intently at Ren.
“Alright, so you want to tell me more, but you have an oath that prevents you from doing so,” I stated.
He shook his head immediately. “Of course not! I would never swear such a thing!”
That was a lie, but I didn’t know if the oath made him tell me that or if he was just enjoying the game a bit too much.
Guess it doesn’t change much either way. I thought.
“Is it a rare monster, then?” I asked.
“Now, Titus-dono, whatever would give you the idea that I would call you here about a rare monster?” he asked with a laugh. The revert to honorifics and the extra pageantry sold me.
Okay, there’s a bit of a pattern, so what if I ask…
“And it can be found anywhere, not just in Besti?” I asked.
He met my reply with silence.
Hmm. Interesting. So, true guesses get lies, and false ones get silence? I thought.
That most certainly seems a circuitous method for approaching this conundrum. Tim joined in.
I managed to avoid jumping out of my skin, just barely, and I held my contemplative pose.
Should he be seeking your assistance with this endeavor, should he not say so? Tim asked.
He’s under an oath. I thought back. Probably to not reveal any information.
If that were true, why is he persisting with providing information regardless? Tim asked. Should not the oath render him unable to do so?
Oaths depend a lot on the oath-giver’s interpretation. I replied internally. So, if he interprets it in such a way that he can’t directly give information, he would still be well within his rights.
Ren coughed.
“Ah, sorry,” I replied immediately. “Where was I? Right. You were telling me about the monster that is only located in Besti.”
What followed after that was essentially a strange version of twenty questions. I’d ask my question and then get a yes or no in a roundabout way.
The only problem was that the game wasn’t 20 questions. In fact, I didn’t know what the end goal was.
“Is it some type of cobra?” I asked. Met with silence.
“Some type of camel?” Again silence.
“Does the type of monster even matter for this game at all?” I finally asked in frustration.
“Titus-dono, I believe that now is neither the time nor the place for such things,” Ren replied.
It took Ren a great deal of effort to get that out, so I was sure that hint bent the oath quite a bit. I made sure to jump on it.
“Time as in time of day?” Silence.
“Time as in day of the year?” A shake of the head and the usual lies that accompanied it.
“Alright,” I replied. “Now we’re getting somewhere. So, for the location, do you mean the specific spot in the desert that the monster spawns?”
“Of course not!” he lied with a laugh. “Why would you think such a thing?”
That will certainly take some time to pinpoint if he is insinuating the entire desert is a possible spawn location. Tim thought.
Nah. I thought back. Twenty questions or less. Let me introduce you to my friend, the binary search.
“Do you have a map I could borrow?” I asked Ren.
He moved as if he was pulling up his status and was going to flick his map over to me, but then he suddenly froze in place. After a grimace and a few more seconds, he finally flicked it over.
“Make it quick,” he whispered urgently, his joviality gone for once. “I am not sure how long I can keep this up.”
“Okay, [Prince],” I replied with equal urgency. “We’re going to play a game. If I say ‘north’ I’m asking if it is on the north half of the map. If I say ‘east’ I’m asking if it is on the east side. North?”
Head shake. I zoomed in on the north.
“East?” Head shake. I zoomed in on the east.
“North?” Silence, and so I zoomed in on the south half.
And so, with the power of cutting your search area in half every iteration, I quickly narrowed it down to an area less than a square mile on the eastern side of the desert.
A relieved [Prince] closed his map after that, and then it was on to guessing the days it spawned. That was pretty simple. I just went month after month and then used the same method to get the day. Or, more exactly, the days.
“Phew,” Ren stated as he pulled a cushion from his inventory and leaned back on it. “I mean… woe is me!” he said dramatically. “The [Demon Lord] has figured out the beast will spawn only on equinox and solstice! He has also determined where! All by himself! Whatever shall we do?” He pulled some grapes from his inventory and ate them one at a time.
“Ha, ha,” I replied. “But if it spawns on the equinox, doesn’t that mean we have… [Get Date].”
System: Current Date is February 18th, Year 450 Age of Adventurers
“A full month until we need to go out and fight it?” I finished my question.
“Do you believe that just anyone is allowed to know of the existence of the-“ he choked on one of his grapes. “Apologies, it escaped me that you do not know the beast’s name, so I am still not in a position to reveal it.” He pounded on his chest a few times and then spoke again. “Normally, a precisely worded oath is required before we can tell this to anyone, and it is only told to the select few that will be taking part in the battle.”
He sat up and clasped his hands together. “I humbly ask that you accept this information as a show of faith, and that you never reveal this to anyone.”
“Sure,” I replied with a grin. “In fact, I solemnly swear by the System that I will not reveal the secret of the desert monster to anyone without approval from the Bestian royal family. I also won’t play games to reveal it in a roundabout way.”
Ren looked relieved. “I knew that trusting you was the right choice, my friend!” he said with a laugh.
I laughed along with him, even as Tim pinged my mind.
Are you certain that this is a wise course of action? He asked.
Yeah. I replied. I win his trust, and then if I need to give out the location, I just have you do it.
Tim snorted. You are even more devious than I suspected.
I gave him a mental shrug. Well, so is the guy across from me. I’m pretty sure I’ve yet to see his actual face.
We finished our laughing, and then Ren continued. “As for it being a month from now, that will still place us under time pressure. We will need to come up with an identity for you, get you accepted into the raiding party, and also teach you enough Bestian to pass as a native, at least briefly.”
“Fair point on the last one,” I muttered. “The auto-translate becomes pretty noticeable after a while.” I paused and thought for a moment. “However, I think the other two might not be necessary.”
“Oh?” Ren asked as he perked up. “Do you happen to have a plan?”
“I do,” I replied with a grin. “Call one of your guards for the raiding party here. We should be able to handle both issues in one fell swoop.”
-----
Ren had a scorpion by the stinger, and he knew it. He did not know what the [Demon Lord’s] plan was, but he could not imagine it would be anything good for Arnit, the poor soldier that he called in.
Surely the tales of the [Demon Lord] consuming his foes and stealing their appearances were made up. Ren reassured himself.
The [Demon Lord] looked the man up and down and motioned for him to spin in a circle.
“You’ll do,” he stated.
Ren screamed internally.
“Titus-dono, may I ask your intentions for my man?” Ren asked with a laugh. “Some might find it strange to be eyed like a cut of Dryadal beef.”
“They raise cows in elven lands?” Titus asked back. Then, immediately after, he shook his head. “Nevermind. Why wouldn’t they?” He turned to Arnit. “Don’t worry. I don’t swing that way.”
By the oasis, what do swings have to do with this!? Ren thought.
However, he didn’t have time to ask. Titus pulled out his menacing staff and then stated, “I’ll need both of you to swear that you won’t reveal any of my skills, spells, or perks to anyone. Or anything else about me unless I give you permission. Understood?”
That relaxed Ren slightly. He would not go through the trouble of getting an oath from a man he was about to murder, would he?
Then Ren remembered the tales of the previous [Demon Lord], Titania the Cruel, who toyed with the [Hero] and her party for months, and even caused one of them to fall in love with her just to make them suffer even more before the end.
Ren was not a religious man. If he had been, he wouldn’t have found himself in this situation in the first place, but that did not stop him from shutting his eyes and sending off some fervent prayers to System in case the almighty being decided to listen now of all times.
All the while, the [Demon Lord] muttered under his breath and then finally said, “Done. How do I look?”
Ren opened his eyes and was treated to the sight of… two Arnits. Though, one quickly stashing away a menacing staff was enough for the [Prince] to know what he was looking at.
“Titus?” he asked as he looked the double up and down. Then, Ren shook his head in amazement. “Had I not seen you but moments before, I would swear that you are him… Though, your voice also gives you away.”
Titus chuckled. As Ren walked to inspect him closer. “Yeah,” he said. “It will be best if I don’t talk too much when impersonating someone specific.” Ren passed a hand through the top of the illusion’s head. Arnit was a few inches taller, so his hand went straight through. Though, the illusion shimmered and distorted as he did so and made Ren shudder.
“And that’s the other problem,” Titus replied as Ren sat back down and dismissed Arnit. “The illusion won’t hold up to a physical inspection. I could fool people at a distance, and that’s about it. But, if I just follow along behind you all to the site of the raid, we could swap out right before the fight.”
Ren mulled that over. “I will need to prepare a full party of my own people, then,” he stated. “Though, that was to be expected since I suspect your unique combat…” he looked the [Demon Lord] over. “… talents would have outed you anyway.”
The [Demon Lord] shrugged as he sat back down. “I can punch stuff just as well as anyone else you could bring. I could lay low.”
Ren chuckled. “You won’t be punching this beast. That much, I can assure you.” However, he was forced to leave it at that. His oath was already niggling at the back of his mind that he had said too much.
“While that does give us many new possible approaches,” Ren finally stated. “I believe it will still be in our best interest to have you learn Bestian.”
Titus frowned. “I still don’t see how that would help. Unless you have someone who could teach me to mimic voices better, I still won’t get away with saying more than a few words.”
Ren shook his head. “As Arnit, yes, that is true. However, I was referring to phase 2 of our plan.” Ren grinned. “It would be much more impressive for the roaming dungeon creator to make his sale to the [King] in our native tongue, no?”
“Sale to the…” Titus trailed off. “Wait. You want me to go in disguise as a roaming dungeon creator and sell your kingdom a dungeon?” he asked incredulously.
“Indeed,” Ren said with a smirk. “We must explain the appearance of the dungeons somehow, no? Without that groundwork, our partnership would be over as soon as someone started asking any of the obvious questions.”
“This seems incredibly stupid,” Titus sighed and put his fingers on the bridge of his nose.
Ren was starting to get worried that negotiations were breaking down, but he, fortunately, didn’t make any new concessions before Titus spoke again.
“But I guess this doesn’t even make it in the top 3 of stupid things I’ve done,” Titus stated. “So… No time like the present. When do I start?”
----
Learning Bestian was both more difficult than I could have hoped and easier than I expected.
The key to that was, of course, the auto-translate. While it didn’t give me the ability to instantly speak whatever language I wanted, the ability to understand every language was a massive boon for learning. I could immediately know what the words I was being taught meant and instantly tell when I was making a mistake because auto-translate would kick in even if I spoke.
All that led to me completely blowing my [Teacher’s] mind because, of course, the poor sap wasn’t let in on the secret. From his point of view, he was teaching an overweight human, who refused to speak Virian, the Bestian language at remarkable speed.
However, even with all that help, I still ran into a few major stumbling blocks.
Chief among them was memorization. While knowing what every word meant was a huge boon, it still didn’t stop me from having to add them one by one to my Bestian vocabulary. To help with that, I purchased a Bestian dictionary, thinking that would solve the issue.
It didn’t. In fact, it was one of the most stupid purchases I had ever made. With auto-translate instantly telling me what words meant the dictionary was mostly redundant. Well, unless I wanted to increase my vocabulary in the most ineffective way possible by going from B to U (fun note about Bestian. They group their vowels at the end of their alphabet for some reason. I was tempted to ask why, but I didn’t since I was just grateful they didn’t have three separate alphabets like the Japanese did).
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The second biggest problem had to have been honorifics. Those little words you tack onto the end of someone’s name based on your relationship with them.
I swear that I counted at least 100.
Every relationship imaginable had its own honorific. Mother? Had one. Father? Had one. Male child and female child? Had two each because why shouldn’t the mother and father both use different honorifics for the same child?
And that wasn’t even getting into the extended family relationships. Aunts, uncles, cousins (with differing honorifics based on how many times removed you were!), and even grandparents and grandchildren.
But I wasn’t upset at all. Nope. I wasn’t annoyed that since Besti was the only nation that would have them (yes, I checked the other languages to see), the System decided that it may as well give their language an entire world’s worth of honorifics.
… Definitely not upset.
Anyway, the only thing that kept me sane through that process was that I only really needed to memorize the honorifics that I would need to say. Things like the one for the [King], the [Prince], and then for any other random person I had the misfortune of needing to talk to on the street.
That was a much shorter list, and I soon had them down pat.
Though, just for kicks, I did ask Ren what the System translated the “kun” honorific that I used for him back when we met.
It turned out that I used the one for a younger brother… except it was for a younger brother who was just a few years old.
Yeah, I had called the [Prince] of Besti a toddler to his face when I had met him. In my defense, he basically was since I had several centuries on him.
Oh, and I would be remiss not to mention the second MVP of my Bestian studies after auto-translate. The unexpected 2nd place goes to… Tim.
It turned out that the System still viewed him as an otherworlder, even though he was the ghost of a lich who had been created in Placeholder. That meant he was eligible for the same auto-translate from the System that I had and therefore had the same pitfalls as me.
So, I just had him sit along for the lessons, and we learned together… and since he was too smart for his own good, he passed me up before I knew it.
However, he knew what was at stake, and he was more than willing to help me practice my Bestian in our downtime while we waited for the raid. Well, whenever he wasn’t tinkering around in the Mindscape trying to figure out how to optimize the [Restart] ritual. Or whenever he didn’t deem what I was doing to be a waste of time. Or whenever we weren’t arguing about something else.
It turned out that happened quite a bit…
-----
I was in the guest room that the [Prince] had lent me, staring off into space. At least… physically.
“Greetings Besti-sama. It is your pleasure to meet me,” I stated in my best attempt at Bestian while in the comforts of the Mindscape. I frowned down at the mental copy of my dictionary but didn’t have time to correct myself.
“You substituted the topic for the subject once again!” Tim called from across the courtyard where he was examining a mocked-up piece of the ritual.
“No sit, Sherlock,” I muttered under my breath. “Greetings Besti-sama. It is my pleasure to-“
“If you insist on wasting your time with this buffoonery, could you practice elsewhere?” Tim asked.
“It’s my mind. I’ll practice wherever I want. Thank you very much,” I stated. “Besides, what if I need your help with my Bestian again?”
“You are more than capable of deciphering the language yourself,” he stated.
We both went back to our studies in a huff.
I continued practicing my new language, but my irritation at Tim just wouldn’t go away.
“Would you stop that?” I asked in frustration.
“Stop what?” Tim replied. “I am merely working on the ritual as I always have. You are most certainly not going to suggest I postpone my work on that?”
We were close to getting into another small shouting match when I had a realization.
I’m not annoyed at Tim. Something else is bugging me.
It took me only a second to figure it out.
“Come with me for a moment,” I stated to Tim.
Before he had time to protest, we both found ourselves in Cameron’s prison… where he was blasting magic into the walls.
“I can now perceive the source of your irritation,” Tim stated. “One moment.”
Tim held up a hand, and the other undead suddenly froze and then crashed to the floor.
“I believe this signifies the end of his usefulness,” Tim said calmly. “Shall I finally remove this nuisance from existence?”
As Tim asked that question, death mana started coalescing.
Cameron gave a muffled scream and squirmed in place while I thought.
“You know, maybe you should,” I stated. Cameron’s eyes shot wide. “I kept him here because I thought it would be helpful, but it seems to me that he’s more trouble than he’s worth, even with the oath to help us with the ritual. Go ahead and get rid of him.”
“Wait!” Cameron said as he finally worked past whatever magical gag Tim had bound him with. “You won’t succeed in casting the ritual without me! You need me!”
Tim snorted. “From my perception, we shall not succeed in our cast with you. Your current amount of assistance, much less than being minuscule, is, in fact, negative.”
Cameron grimaced. “I’ll… swear another oath.” Tim didn’t let up. “A more binding one!” he added.
Tim looked at me, and I nodded slightly.
“Very well,” Tim stated. “But I will require exact verbiage before I allow this. Are we clear?”
Tim and I huddled to decide our terms, which boiled down to three things.
1. Cameron would do everything in his power to ensure that the time ritual succeeded. Not just the bare minimum of help he had been giving us
2. Cameron would obey commands from Tim and me
3. Cameron would not try to circumvent the oath or our commands or even think about ways to try to avoid them
Surprisingly, Cameron was fine with everything but point number 2.
“You think I’m just going to accept orders from you?” Cameron laughed in my face. “You know what? I would rather die. Go ahead. Kill me.”
“Why are you so against taking orders from me?” I asked.
He laughed dryly. “The fact that you even have the gall to ask...”
I could only assume that Pride had done something personal to the man, but I didn’t even know what it had been when I was Pride. That meant I could only find out by asking him… which I didn’t care to. Not that it mattered. His insistence on not taking my orders was easily fixed.
“Fine,” I sighed theatrically. “We’ll only make you take orders from Tim. Agreed?”
Cameron thought about it momentarily before agreeing… the agreement might have just been because Tim was starting to look impatient.
And so the oath was sworn. Cameron would do everything we had stated. The only difference was there was no provision for obeying my orders.
That was easily fixed.
“Hey Tim, command him to obey my orders,” I stated as soon as Cameron was done.
“Cameron, obey all of Titus’ commands as if they were my own,” Tim immediately replied.
Cameron sputtered and raged, but “calm down” turned out to be a valid order, and his complaints soon died down.
With that taken care of, there was no real need for the mind prison anymore. I did away with it, and then it was three of us returning to our studies.
Cameron didn’t wait long before speaking up again.
“So why does he get to slack off?” he muttered to Tim.
“I need to learn Bestian to secure funding for magicite,” I stated.
“I concur that it is a colossal waste of resources,” Tim muttered back to Cameron. “He will need to be the primary caster of the ritual. He should be allocating all of his time towards learning this.”
“One of us should take over as lead,” Cameron whispered back. “There is no way in Placeholder that we should leave the casting to the least knowledgeable of all of us.”
I slammed the dictionary shut. “Lines three and seven on the northern edge are off by 15 degrees. Also, they should be parallel, not just in whatever direction looks good,” I started critiquing the ritual from across the room. “The most recent enhancement you added won’t work. It looks good initially but will invert the mana structure during phase 7. Unless you like turning someone’s mental faculties to paste under the strain, I would revert that.” I shook my head. “And finally, the micro-optimizations you’ve been implementing are nowhere near worth the time you’ve put into them. If you stop and do some calculations, you’ve saved maybe 20 mana total, which is basically a rounding error with the scale of the ritual.”
“He’s bluffing,” Cameron scoffed as Tim frowned. “There’s no way he could tell all that from way over there.”
“I would concur, save for the irrefutable fact that he is correct,” Tim replied unhappily.
Cameron looked over at me in shock, and I shrugged.
“Need I remind you both that you are currently in here,” I said while tapping my head and opening my book back up. “While I’m not focusing on it, I have to pay at least a modicum of attention to everything you’re doing, or it would vanish. So, yes, I am practicing both at the same time.”
That shut them up momentarily, but I couldn’t help but add one last barb.
“Besides, it’s Tim’s fault that we’re stuck in Besti anyway,” I stated. “How the frick did the level 10 [Magic Researcher] miss the fact that we were being [Scried]?”
“My mind was preoccupied with other matters,” he replied evasively as he returned to the ritual.
I probably could have let him off with that, but I wasn’t in the mood to go easy on either of them.
“And those matters were?” I prodded.
Tim sighed and looked up from the ritual. “Your curse. I was researching it and attempting to determine a way to mitigate its impact or remove it entirely.”
“Oh,” I replied. That mollified me quite a bit because the curse had been an absolute pain in the butt. “And what did you find?”
“Some good news, we should be able to-“
“More important question,” Cameron interrupted. “Titus-“ he said my name like a curse. “-will be the primary caster, and both of us will be secondaries, but how many others are there going to be? I can’t optimize this ritual without knowing how many people will throw mana at it directly.”
“At least 9,” I replied. “I should be able to get at least that many of my speakers to level 25 if… Aw, frick.”
“Titus?” Tim asked.
I shook my head. “Just realizing I’m an idiot.” I sighed. “I forgot to go and get them all in my party before going on my leveling spree. I’m going to have to make another trip to the volcanoes.”
“Would their presence not have slowed you down greatly?” Tim asked. “And how did you plan to remain inconspicuous while leading around a full party?”
I shook my head. “They just have to be in my party to get contribution for the kill,” I replied. “So, they can stay back in their hometown while I go off and kill things.”
Tim frowned while I continued kicking myself.
“Truly? It allows leveling of persons who remain entire continents from the battle?” Tim asked. “That hardly makes sense. What’s to stop anyone and everyone from hitting high levels while in the comfort of their own homes? Wouldn’t it make more sense to-”
I tuned out halfway through. It wasn’t like his complaints would do anything.
I slammed my book shut again as I had a realization. “Tim, no!” I shouted as I reappeared in front of him and clamped a hand around his mouth.
I was too slow. The world slowed down for a brief moment, and then things kicked back into gear with Cameron and Tim holding their heads.
“Stupid, stupid, stupid!” I berated myself as I kicked the ground in frustration. “Tim’s from Earth! You knew this! You could have stopped whatever the frick just got patched, but no! You didn’t pay attention!”
“What is this about a patch?” Tim asked with a shake of his head.
I shut my mouth for a moment and then decided. Well, he deserves to know… unless it will drive him crazy again.
Fortunately, I had an undo button called [Control Z] in case of that.
“Something to discuss in the real world,” I stated. “Join me out there.”
Tim did, and so… I explained things as succinctly as I could.
We weren’t real. The entire universe as we knew it was just running on a big server. The world occasionally got patches, and I was the only one who remembered what had happened before them.
All the while, I was pointing my staff at him and preparing to cast. In my first life, he had practically suffered a mental breakdown when he heard that we didn’t really exist, and he was only saved by a server rollback. I was prepared to [Control Z] him should he suffer the same fate this time.
However, it seemed that being decades older must have helped, because he took the news surprisingly well.
“I should find that shocking,” Tim stated. “But after all I have seen, and with my chats with the so-called ‘System’ that is as logical as anything. Doubly so with how fallible said System is.” He paused. “You seemed aware that my thought processes were about to cause a patch. How did you come to that conjecture?”
“Pretty much any time that someone from Earth made statements like ‘this doesn’t make sense’ or ‘this should work,’ it caused a patch,” I replied. “I spaced on the fact that you’re from Earth for a moment, and by then, it was too late.”
Tim thought for a moment. “And I wager this patching system has its efficacy removed when you become aware of it?”
“Uhh, yeah,” I replied. “I think so. At least, it hasn’t been patching when I say stuff like that. How did you know?”
Tim snorted. “You would have long ago patched your ‘useless’ class to be something grander,” he stated. “After all, it makes no sense that the [Demon Lord] is not invincible.”
We stood there staring at each other for a moment.
“It was worth a try,” he chuckled. “Was it not? Anyway, before Cameron interrupted us, I was informing you of a possible solution to your hex.”
“I’m all ears,” I replied.
“I am unable to break it, even with my superlative skill in [Mortae] magic,” he stated.
I deflated a bit.
“However,” he held up a ghostly hand. “That does not preclude it from being transferred.”
I furrowed my brow. “Alright, what do you have in mind?”
-------
Dave was a summoned monster. A summoned monster known as a dave. It was slimy. It was acidic. It was lime green.
And above all, it was not even smart enough to know any of those things.
It sat there, plopped on the floor, awaiting its master’s orders.
Its master didn’t order it to do anything, but instead, the dave felt a build-up of magic occurring over its head.
That didn’t matter. The magic didn’t feel tasty. And even more, its master didn’t order it to eat it.
Except the magic came towards Dave anyway.
As the two collided, its thoughts became clearer. It knew. It understood the power of death! It would wreak havoc on the living and raise the dead to become its army! It would conquer the entire room that they were in!... and then maybe even several feet of outside!
But first, it needed to take care of its first victim!
It launched itself furiously toward its previous master.
The master would soon become the servant! A mere undead puppet who would do nothing but-
There was the sound of a snap, and Dave knew no more.
-------
“Did you know it would turn the dave hostile like that?” I asked Tim in mild amusement.
Tim shrugged. “There was a risk. There was a high probability that removing the malediction would destabilize it and cause unpredictable behavior. That was why I suggested such a harmless creature to transfer to.”
I nodded in understanding. “I see. I was wondering why you weren’t trying to weaponize it.”
Tim snorted. “While it would have been my preference that you maintain it a while longer, that would preclude your participation in the upcoming raid. I doubt your alliance with the [Prince] would hold should the rare monster suddenly turn undead.”
I grimaced. “Yeah… Good call.” Then I paused. “Thanks, Tim.”
He gave me a curt nod. “Now, if there’s nothing else, we both have much to prepare.”
And prepare we did, until it was finally time to leave on the expedition.
-------
“And you are positive that you can remain unseen?” Ren asked.
“Yes, Ren-kun,” I teased him a bit. “I know how to travel undetected.”
His facial expressions said nothing but doubt, so I sighed. “Fine. I’ll demonstrate,” I replied. “Look over there!” I pointed and gasped.
He didn’t appear amused, but I continued pointing.
“Now is not the time for games, Titus-dono,” he replied, reverting to honorifics and everything. “If you are caught, we are done for.”
Maybe you’re done for. I thought. I could fight my way out. Instead, I just coughed. “Seriously, just look away for one moment.”
He sighed but did as I asked. “I do not see what this-“ He trailed off as, in his view, I had completely vanished by the time he turned around.
“Titus? Where did you-“
He almost stepped forward, but I slapped his hands before he could collide with me. “Tadah,” I stated. “Never left. Now do you believe me?” I asked.
“Yes,” Ren stated. “I don’t know why I expected anything less.”
I nodded in satisfaction.
“However,” Ren frowned. “Will you be able to keep up with a group that is riding camels?”
I frowned too. “Alright, we might have to think of some additional countermeasures…”
-----
The solution ended up being simple. Ren just added me to the party instead of Arnit, who was riding with the group. Then, I just needed to follow the direction the party pointed me and swap out with Arnit right before the raid.
Then, it was show time.
To my surprise, the group tossed a ton of monster lures onto the sand right before midday.
Meanwhile, Ren also tossed out a special-looking lure that was painted blue.
His father, the [King], remarked on that. “What is that you have brought, Ren-son?” he asked. And yes, “son” was just what my perk translated that particular honorific as.
Anyway, Ren smiled broadly. “This is a special monster lure that I procured through my own efforts. I am sure that you will be pleased with its effects.”
Ren’s older brother scoffed. “And this is why I suggested we leave the layabout at home. The raid hasn’t started, and he’s already wasting Bestian money! You know as well as I that there is a limit to the amount monster lures can pull!”
Ren just kept his smirk. “We shall see. We shall see.”
Meanwhile, I had quite a bit to see. All around, people were pulling out sleds and… grappling hooks attached to rope?
I had no clue what the frick any of that was supposed to be, but, thankfully, a few people were pulling out staves and bows, so I just pulled out my disguised staff, and pretended like I knew what was going on. That included standing on one of the sleds with the rest of Ren’s crew.
I was about to whisper to him to figure out what was happening, but I was interrupted.
There was a loud…croak?... bark?... and a giant beast suddenly burst out of the sand.
“The treasure turtle appears!” the [King] shouted as we finally got a view of the 30-foot tall, 200-foot long, gem-studded beast. “Quickly, grappling hooks!”
Several gathered people tossed their grappling hooks onto the beast’s back and landed them fast. I was still wondering what the heck was going on, but that was answered as the monster got going.
That giant had places to be.
It swam through the sand as if it provided no less resistance than water, and it soon was moving at a clip that well outpaced any horse.
The [King] and other [Prince’s] groups were dragged along on their sleds, and they started attacking it with arrows and spells.
Meanwhile… our group stood still.
I wasn’t the only one to notice that.
“It seems that little Ren-kun has been left behind,” his older brother shouted back mockingly.
“No,” Ren shouted. “I’m simply waiting for the next one. You shall see!”
He sounded confident, but I could tell that the man was wishing with every fiber of his being that another turtle would appear.
His wish was granted. A second gigantic gem-studded turtle rose from the sand, a couple dozen feet from where the first one appeared.
“Grapple it, quickly!” he shouted. His men followed the order, and soon enough, we were being taken for a ride in a completely different direction from the other group.
I also noticed that a third one had appeared behind us, but Ren just shook his head when I pointed it out.
“It will disappear after a while. Now, everyone, attack!” he shouted.
And so I joined in with the other archers and mages and started pelting the giant beast with as many bolt spells as possible. Taking care to leave off [Fire Bolt] since it seemed like no one else was using it, and I guessed that the desert monster had resistances to fire.
I had more mana than almost everyone there combined, but I could tell that we were barely scratching the beast.
I stopped casting and moved toward the front of the sled.
“Titus, what are you doing?” Ren asked.
“I’m going in. Try not to hit me.” I chuckled. “Not that it would matter either way.”
I gave Tim and Cameron a brief mental warning to brace themselves, and then I jumped…
Or, more specifically, I jumped, used [Flash Step], and then as I was flying through the air cast, “[Blink]!”
That was plenty of distance to get me onto the turtle’s back. I stowed my staff and started punching the giant beast with [Earth Strikes]. It bellowed in rage but still showed no signs of slowing down.
Meanwhile, Ren was yelling something at me, but I couldn’t hear him over the sounds of the beast.
I could have sworn that he was saying something like, “Get off!” but that didn’t make any sense. I mean, if I wanted to do damage, I was in the best spot to do that.
What could a turtle even do to me while I’m on its back? Roll over? I joked to myself.
It turned out that it did have an answer… as it dove deep beneath the sand with me in tow.
-------
“Let go!” Ren shouted. “It will drag us under!”
His men followed the command immediately, and they watched the grappling hooks, the [Demon Lord], and Ren’s hopes and dreams be dragged underneath the sands.
“And this is why I told him to get off,” Ren grumbled as he looked at the calm sands in front of them. “We are a nation of [Martial Artists]. Did he not think we had tried such a thing before?” Ren sighed and rubbed his eyes. “There goes any chance I had at beating my brother and sister to the throne. Moreover, father will certainly be curious about the monster lure that caused this, that I will be unable to reproduce.”
“[Prince] Ren,” one of his retainers stated.
But… this is not all bad. System informs the world of the [Demon Lord’s] death, no? Then maybe I can work that to my advantage. Ren thought with a slight smirk coming back to his face. I would not be lying should I claim I played a large part in his death.
“[Prince] Ren!”
“Yes, yes, what is it?” Ren asked.
However, he needn’t have asked. The treasure turtle broke through the surface of the sand once more and practically flew straight up in the air.
Meanwhile, the [Demon Lord] was still clinging to its back, laughing and taunting it in that strange tongue of his.
“Is that all you got!? You ain’t got nothin’! Eat this, you overgrown reptile!” he shouted.
To the shock of all present, not only had the turtle been unable to kill the [Demon Lord]… the [Demon Lord] was winning.
No, not winning… Ren thought. He’s won. Ren watched the turtle go limp mid-jump and then crash heavily atop the sand.
For his part, the [Demon Lord] was sent into an awkward tumble, but Ren belatedly realized that he had taken practically no damage from the entire exchange.
So, Ren took stock of the situation.
The treasure turtle was dead. That was a feat that was unheard of. Usually, the giant beast simply vanished after traveling far enough from the point where it appeared. The primary profit to be had were the gems that came off its shell as it took damage, but the [Demon Lord] hadn’t even realized that was the case.
Either that or he was simply wanting to remind me of his power. Ren thought. Plastering a smile back on his face, he greeted the monster.
“Well done, Titus-dono!” Ren shouted with a laugh. “I knew that we would be able to defeat the beast with your assistance!”
The [Demon Lord] beamed, and the rest of the party began the lengthy process of collecting the gems that had fallen from the beast, along with those that had mercifully resurfaced along with the turtle’s jump.
Meanwhile, Ren took stock of the number of gems, a figure which all members of the raid were required by oath to report, and blanched.
This was indeed a profitable venture, [Demon Lord]. Ren thought. However… how in the ever-shifting sands will I explain this many gems to father?