The silent mutual observation lasted for almost a minute, giving enough time for both parties to evaluate each other. The challengers noted a bulky figure of a giant, who was patiently sitting at the table without even a sign of worry. Bald, dressed only in brown torn pants that were barely visible under the wooden surface, he was silently looking in return. Visually strong and huge, he sincerely lacked the CP point according to the System’s identification to prove his appearance. The deep cut around his cheekbone was covered in dried blood as if the man came directly from the battle that went not so good for the giant. Moreover, the absence of any weapon decreased the threat level even more.
However, the confident gaze and faint grin were speaking against the theory of being weak. At least that was what the leader of the group felt with his guts. The real danger, but simultaneously the opportunity. Noticing the same understanding of the situation in the eyes of his teammates, he once again repeated.
“It’s a hidden event. Do not attack!”
“Why are sure about that? Maybe it is a trap… Not, it is an obvious trap!”
The immediate response from their rogue, David, made the leader growl from annoyance, not even hiding it from the others. Despite the young age, the man in a ninja outfit with a sai in his hand and several kunai under the sleeves had no basic knowledge about any games at all. Raised in the old movies, he was constantly training under the guidance of his grandfather to become a true warrior. The problem was that his only relative and “master” had a problem with his head after stopping taking his pills and running away with his future apprentice into the woods when the young man was just a boy.
It caused a lot of trouble with the behavior of the young man that the leader had to deal with. The reason for it was simple – he was the older brother of the self-proclaimed “ninja”, meeting his younger copy of himself in the Tower by accident. Not wishing to abandon an already broken boy, the leader was constantly harassed by David’s acts of idiocy and hast judgments.
“Dumbass, isn’t it obvious?”
The harsh answer from their tank, Broody, made the rogue squint his eyes in doubt. Looking around, and especially into the dark corners, David tried to find the arguments to confirm his assumption but failed.
“Non-hostile status. Literally the word “Mysterious” is in his name. Weak CP, slightly above basic zombies. His appearance of a human, while we only met the undead in attacking army,” Raymond pointed.
“A dozen of skill books that are lying in front of him. The strange tavern with creepy heads on the walls… And who in hell will sit inside such a place during the siege of the city?”” Broody added.
“Yep, I think the same. The outcome of the event depends on our next actions. We all heard the sound right in the moment of entering – it might exist only to trigger an instinctive hostile reaction from the start. However, I bet any attempt to attack him will cause his CP to rise to a much higher level. That is a trap, David. To lure into thinking that we can get an easy win. No, we need to be clever.”
“Okay, okay, I got it. Once again, you are all smart and I am dumb,” the rogue sighed with annoyance, walking to the side and sitting on the nearest bench. Taking it out of his sai, he started to check the weapon’s blade.
“Not dumb, you just haven’t played any games because of our braindead grandfather. There are some obvious patterns in the Tower. That is the reason why we didn’t go into the keep with others but stayed here. The loot from the shops was already worth the risk,” the leader shook his head before turning to the mysterious character in front of him. The latter was silently watching them as if patiently waiting for their actions.
“So, Larry, what do we do?”
“Let me think… The hint must be in the skill books,” the leader scratched his bearded chin while looking at the table. After a short consideration, he slowly started to approach the sitting figure of the giant. The potential enemy didn’t even blink, continuing to smile faintly. From a few meters distance, Larry finally managed to check the contest of the items. That immediately led to a strong reaction.
“Oh, wow! He has a “Duplicative throw”! Damn, also - “Omnivorous” and “Big Stomach”. Those two, if combined with my “Marauding”, can be merged into “Devouring”. The latter can help to extract energy, mana, and even more from the corpses. I always wanted to get them. However, not only the price was huge, but it was also locked behind multiple secondary quests to raise the reputation. I found out too late about such a combination – the floor was already near the end. Thought it was forever locked for me!”
“See, dumbass, what you could have done with your hasty idea about the trap,” Broody instantly turned to David. Only the distance had saved the latter from the cuff on the nape.
“Yeah… Or we could simply kill him and get everything at once,” the ninja retorted, but didn’t press the topic further, focusing on playing with a sai.
“What else is there, Larry?”
“Let me see again… So, “Knife Mastery” and “Brawler” – nothing special. “Drunkard Warrior” sounds promising, but only in conjunction with “Poison Resistance”, which is too expensive. “Master Chief”, “Poison detection”. Hmm, “Food storage” looks really good. We found “Instrument storage” and once I saw how one of the challengers tried to sell “Materials storage”. It could be a combination of the proper inventory. The last one - “Conservation” – freezes the inanimate objects… Need to think it over. However, the potential might be huge!”
“We got a jackpot!” Raymond barely held his emotions.
“Almost… as we need to get the skills first,” Larry pointed at the sitting giant. Attempting to stretch his hand to the nearest skill book immediately led to a movement of the mysterious man, halting the leader, “Yep, as I feared, we need to do something to get the skills.”
“Maybe it is a fighting challenge? I can deal with him with ease!”
“Shut up, David!”
“Nope, it must be something else,” Larry’s mind was chaotically jumping from one idea to another, while his eyes were searching for clues in the surroundings.
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
“Could it be a simple trade? Or even barter?”
“Might be, Broody might be. Let’s check,” putting his backpack on the floor, the leader took a short sword in the sheath before showing it to the huge man. Noting no reaction, Larry continued to do it with different types of items until he reached another skill book. The hesitation made him pause for several seconds, but the desire to get the aimed combination was stronger. This time the mysterious man moved. Leaning forward as if checking the content of the cover, he slowly returned to his previous position. However, this time the barely noticeable smile had disappeared, being replaced by a new expression.
“I found it. It’s a skill book that he needs,” Larry confirmed, turning his head to his teammates.
“And what the exchange rate is? One on one?”
“How would I know,” the leader shrugged before commanding, “let’s show him all our skill books one by one to see if he is interested. I don’t believe he needs something strong or valuable. More likely it’s a hidden condition. Or it even could be just several skills we possess. Could be anything. Unfortunately, we don’t have any guide… hey, David, it applies to you too. And hurry up, we don’t have much time if we want to leave the area before it is completely overwhelmed by the undead.”
“Again, we just can kill him to save time,” the ninja complained, reaching for his bag.
“Would you bet a possible skill on that? What will you do if they disappear right after his death? I must remember you – it is not the real world, David,” Larry paused in his tracks to prevent his younger brother from doing anything without thinking.
“Okay, I got it. Shit, you are just like Grandpa. The old man was always mumbling – David, stop doing that, do this, blah, blah, blah. Gosh, it’s so annoying to hear a constant yapping!”
“It is even more tiring to hear your stupid opinion on literally everything when you don’t know shit, boy! Stop fucking around and move!” Broody’s shout accelerated the ninja, causing a new wave of barely audible swears.
The following showcase took some time. Repeating the process again and again, Larry started to feel despair, seeing as nothing seemed to interest the mysterious giant. At first, he was tensed, fearing that they would need to give something valuable to fulfill the condition, but later it changed to the sincere worry of a failure. Pushing forward another skill book and glancing at four more left, the leader cursed their luck.
“See, this mob doesn’t need anything. Let’s kill him!”
“Keep your mouth close, David. You don’t know his real strength. He is clearly an important person under disguise. He is just standing out too much from the floor’s situation,” this time it was Raymond to stopped the aggressive approach of the eighteen-year-old youngster.
“Wait. Yep! I see the reaction,” the cheerful shout of the leader improved the mood of the team, “he has put one skill aside. I will show him more, just in case,” continuing the process, Larry soon was disappointed to see that nothing else had made throw the check. On the other hand, the potential loss of only one skill book was an easy price to pay. Especially, taking into account that it was completely useless.
Mana forging [Rank 0/3] – a skill that grants a wielder the ability to infuse mana into the metal during the creation process to greatly improve the properties of the material, squeezing everything possible and even more from the forging process. Such skill is a necessity for any smith, who craves for greatness. The mana cost depends on the metal, the extent of improvement, and the material’s volume.
“What did he choose?”
“Supportive skill for the blacksmith. Trash. I haven’t seen real crafters – without combat abilities, they just can’t survive the trials,” Larry answered with a smile, spotting how the giant put his hand on the skill book. The latter glowed for a moment before disappearing into nothingness as if it was learned by the red-named man. Obviously, he knew that it couldn’t be true – most of the Tower-summoned enemies were mindless creatures.
Some “intelligent” bosses could even speak with some basic phrases, apart from angry roars or loud promises about painful death. However, even short observation showed that their repertoire was quite limited. The same situation was with friendly characters, who could speak, answer questions, or keep up the conversation only on limited topics, soon starting to repeat themselves without even realizing it. And it wasn’t surprising. The Tower directly told through the mission’s descriptions that they were walking a standard hero story from the bottom. The routes variated, but the course was the same – to defeat the Overlord, who aimed to become a Dark God.
It was like a huge play on the scene, where everyone acted according to their designed roles. In the case of the challengers, there were many potential candidates for the hero. Unfortunately, their number was inevitably falling. This siege already had taken a lot of lives and was far from being over. The threat was still there, slowly crawling around the streets in the form of an army of the undead. Luckily, the Tower saved them from the fate of being stuck in the city of zombies, hiding all the population inside the central keep.
Sudden motion returned Larry’s attention to his surroundings and the giant himself. Raising from the sitting position and pushing the table to the side, the mysterious man paused for a moment. Towering above the leader by almost two heads, he calmly spoke a few words. His voice, deep and heavy, radiated gratitude and calmness, despite the elusive meaning of the unknown language. Larry only slightly smiled in return. However, his grin became much wider when he understood that all the skill books were left on the table, while the giant was already heading towards the door.
“Yeah! We’ve got everything! Now…,” the leader’s words were interrupted by a system message that popped up in front of his eyes.
Attention! System warning – proceed with following the dedicated scenario.
As the walls were breached, the Archi-Lich cast the grand spell, encircling the city with constantly narrowing toxic fog that would melt your body in under the minute. Your only possible way to escape is through the portal inside the last bastion, but it will take time for the royal mages to set it. Protect the keep from the undead until then.
Friendly reminder: The penalty for failure is death.
“Let’s hurry!”
Larry’s command had set his teammates in motion. Both Raymond and Broody immediately ran to the table, starting to shove the skill books inside their backpacks. His younger brother, on the other hand, was eyeing the back of the giant, who halted his tracks in the middle of the room. However, as if the mysterious man also heard the voice of the leader, he woke up from his frozen state and approached the exit. Gripping the handle and pulling the door to himself, the giant attempted to make a first step outside, when a familiar to Larry blue glow enveloped his figure before disappearing without a trace.
“The hell, David! What have you done?!”
Realizing that his stupid brother had used his unique skill on the unknown entity, the leader's reaction was instantaneous. The problem was that the same could be said about the giant. Stopping his bare foot in mid-air, he slowly returned it back, before resolutely closing the door with a loud bang and locking it with a thick bolt a few seconds later.
“I stole his skill… you were so convincing about his insane hidden power that I thought I could improve my own strength… and… all I’ve got is stupid “Rune Alteration”! I’ve lost my ability to make illusionary copies because of you!”
“Because of me? You dumb idiot – you’ve done it yourself!”
Larry roared in return, spotting how the giant tilted his head to the side and sighed. Then the man slowly started to turn around. Simultaneously the body of the Mysterious Gladiator was already covered with metal, hiding his flesh under the creepy steel that was filled with flickering green runes. In just another moment the closed round helmet, pet-bellied cuirass, long greaves, and braces had appeared on the giant, finally properly explaining his name. The next one brought a small shield and a huge mace. The latter dropped on the floor with a loud bang, making a dent in wooden planks.
“He can’t be strong, yes? His CP is still only 163 points, almost fifty less than any of us… And I’ve weakened him by taking the skill… He just looks scary, right? Right, guys?”