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World: MSS - Loading...
"Speech"
"Thoughts"
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I spent the night picking magic stones out of the walls. Along the way one of the daggers finally broke, the blade breaking off into a dozen pieces when I struck a particular hard piece of rock. My next dagger fared better, the blade simply fell out of the handle. Covering it with a piece of cloth ripped off from my shirt, I painstakingly picked out more magic stones, careful about handling them. By the end, my hand was covered in tiny cuts and scrapes from working so close near the walls.
Then magic stones lit up again, even the ones I had taken off of the rocks.
“Good. The magic is still present in the stones even after I took them out of the rocks.”
This proved my theory, that I was on the right track. If the magic stones did not light up at daylight when taken out of the rocks, it would mean that the magic in them was in the tunnel walls themselves. But my gamble had paid off, the rocks would work as intended. I tested one out by going back deeper into the tunnels and throwing one.
Boom!
It wasn’t a huge explosion, but big enough to hurt a Lesser Dokkaebi. It might not be instantly lethal, but it would definitely be enough to buy me time. I took off my shirt, which was more rag than shirt at this point, and put all the magic stones in it. It would serve as my satchel for now. Now there was only one pressing concern.
“I need to find a way to get down there safely and a back-up plan in case the door is locked.”
My entrance into the chamber was about 15 feet up from the ground. I was not sure of this body’s capabilities yet, though it was far superior to my original body back on earth. However I still doubted whether it was ready to drop 15 feet free fall without spraining an ankle or worse, breaking a leg. Both would be deadly, especially since I’d be surrounded by Dokkaebis.
“I need to decide soon. The slaves will probably attack.” I knew that the slaves would try and mount another attack soon. It was the 5th day and they would be growing desperate.
Even though I had the magic stones, I wasn’t particularly confident in my plan. I would probably be overwhelmed by the monsters even before I had a chance to cripple a few of them. So I would need a distraction, something to distract the majority of the Dokkaebi’s while I made my escape. I squashed any remorse I had felt using the other slaves. If they were smart, they’d make an opening and follow.
“Just think of that one slave who purposefully chose the same entrance as the elf girl. Those are the type of people you’re using.” It made me feel better, but not much.
With nothing else to prepare or do, I went over to the opening of my tunnel overlooking the chamber and decided to take a small nap. I seated myself at an angle where I was sure I wouldn’t be seen by the Dokkaebis, not that they’d look up anyways.
“Is it really ok to take a nap? What if I miss it?” I had doubts but I was sure that the fighting would be loud, plus my nerves wouldn’t let me fall into a deep sleep.
I closed my eyes, leaning against the wall while sitting.
“Pssst.”
I dreamt that someone was trying to get my attention.
“Pssst. Hey you. The one without the shirt.”
I hated how even in the dream, I was shirtless.
“Hey, ugly.”
Who the fuck?
I opened my eyes, looking around trying to see if I really had been dreaming or not. I couldn’t see anyone in the tunnel with me, nor was it possible that a Dokkaebi from the chamber below was trying to get my attention.
“Over here, ugly.”
The insult had definitely come from near me, so I looked in the only other places I could think of. The openings around me.
Waving a hand in another entrance were two figures I had not seen before.
One was an elf girl with dark tanned skin, curly hair and a small heart shaped face. She wore her hair in a ponytail that created a little bob above her head. Both her face, neck and bare shoulders were covered with light blue tribal painting.
The other figure was of beastman descent. She had ram horns that curled down to her chins and pink fluffy hair around her face. Even from this distance I could see that one of her eyes was fully human, while the other looked like a lamb with horizontal pupils.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
“Finally, the ugly man looks.” The tanned girl whispered.
I frowned at her, trying to figure out what was happening.
What I knew was that we were both above the chamber hanging from our own entrances. The other fact that I knew was that somehow these two slaves had met and decided to team up. The third was that they wanted my attention for some reason.
It didn’t take me long to make my decision.
I turned my back to them and ignored them.
The reasoning for my decision was simple. Right now, I was in a situation so that when the group of slaves attacked, I would have to put my plan into action. I needed all the rest and energy I could get. This was the 5th day and I didn’t want to put anything to chance. I just couldn’t think of a single thing that they could offer me that would help me with their plan. They both had their shirts on and I saw no sign of battle on either of them, meaning they had not encountered any Dokkaebis.
“So there’s no way they have a stockpile of magic stones like me. Most likely I’ll end up getting the worst part of the deal, having to cover all three of us. But that’ll cost more stones than me just covering for myself.”
The strongest reasoning for my decision: I had been betrayed in the past.
Of course, I had been betrayed in the MSS universe when I was still clicking away in front of my computer screen. The NPCs in this game had been brutal. They backstabbed my character over Cores and sometimes, even over some coins. Most of the time, I would team up with random adventurer NPCs just to find out that they were ‘plunderers’, a term we used in the forums to refer to NPCs who hunted other adventurers.
So naturally, I was distrustful of anyone who was trying to get my attention.
“Hey, psst. Don’t ignore us!” The girl said again.
I tried to tune her out.
“We have a way to get down there!”
Well now, that was interesting.
I stuck my head out of my opening.
“Well, now he listens.” The elf told her beastman, or rather beastwoman, companion.
She didn’t respond, just holding her hands together nervously.
“You said you have a way to get down there?” I asked.
She smirked at me.
“Yes. And I know you have a pile of magic stones that are still working.”
I looked beside me and cursed. My magic stones were peeking through the makeshift bag I made out of my ripped shirt, shining light everywhere. It was a miracle that the Dokkaebis below hadn’t noticed.
“So what? Are you offering a trade? How to pick the magic stones off of the walls for the knowledge of how to get down?” I was still wary of them and was not willing to part with my knowledge easily.
But if they truly did know how to get down, it would help me tremendously.
“Nope. Teaming up.” The elf held out a bundle of rope. “We lower ourselves down and you cover our retreat with the magic stones. They blow up, yes?”
I studied the girl’s appearance. She was definitely elf, but from where? There were a number of different cultures in Ales for the races and their appearance could vary drastically different depending on where they were from. The hint must be in the war-paint on her body…
“What’s an Elf from the Delirious Jungle doing here?”
The girl narrowed her eyes and shared a look with her pink-haired friend.
“That doesn’t matter. What matters is that we all want to escape. Are you waiting for the next wave of attacks?”
I nodded slowly.
“Well, I’m proposing that we work together.” She said again.
“The problem is that there’s only one rope.” I didn’t want to be stuck up here as I threw down magic stones to cover their retreat, just for them to escape.
“Well yes. That’s something we haven’t thought through yet.” She scratched her head and smiled. “How about we think that through together?”
I felt my lips curl into a frown. Did she really not think that far ahead? Combined with the warpaint on her body plus the carefree attitude, as well as her lack of reservations in asking me for an alliance, I could only come up with one identity for her.
“An Elf Barbarian from the Delirious Jungle.”
Only a barbarian could approach another slave in this tense environment with a carefree attitude like that. Actually, now that I thought about it, I wondered if this was even her plan. I looked at the beastman girl trying to guess how much of this might have been her plan.
“Does it matter? What matters is if they can help you survive through this.”
“Well?” The elf barbarian urged. “They could be attacking any minute now.”
“Name.” I said finally after thinking. “I want your name.”
“L’teya, fourth daughter of Agda. You can call me Lety.”
“Lety, fourth daughter of Agda. Swear upon your mother’s name and ancestor’s name that you won’t leave me behind.”
“I swear.” She said easily.
The pink-haired girl looked at the elf, eyes wide with shock.
“Probably her first time dealing with an actual barbarian.” But I, on the other hand, had dealt with them hundreds, thousands of times.
Once a barbarian swore to the name of their mother, father or ancestor they would never break that oath.
Ever.
“You have a deal. Here’s what we’re going to do.”
My idea was simple. They’d throw over half of the rope to my side and I’d fasten it. Then they would check to make sure that it was firmly fixed in place from their end. When the attack happened, they would descend from their side first, swinging from the rope and land. I would cover their retreat while this was happening. Then when they landed, they would protect the area around where I would descend then us three would leave through the door together.
It sounded good in theory but I knew that there were hundreds of things that could go wrong with this plan. What if the rope broke after they landed? What if they failed to keep the rope safe from the Dokkaebis? What if they got killed? What if I threw a magic stone in the wrong spot and burnt the rope?
But this was the best way that I could think of.
“If I could’ve descended first it would’ve been better. But I don’t want to trust them with my magic stones, and they don’t want to trust me with the rope. Tch. At Least I can trust that the barbarian girl will keep her promise or die trying.”
“I told you he looked clever!” I heard L’te’ya’s voice from the other side entrance.
There was no fixture on my side of the tunnel for me to tie to rope on. So I took the rusty sword and plunged it into the soil, trying to get it deep enough until only the handle was sticking out. I had to take a rock and hammer it in little by little, hoping that the small noise wouldn’t be noticed by the Dokkaebis. I didn’t quite manage to fix the rope yet when I heard the elf barbarian half-whisper-half-yell to me once more.
“Psst! Hey!”
I tried to ignore her but she kept getting louder in her calls for attention that I feared the Dokkaebi’s would hear.
“What?!” I was almost too loud.
“Look!” I saw her point to the chamber.
I saw a couple of slaves exit from the tunnels stealthily while the Dokkaebi were frolicking around.
“Scouts!” I ran back to the sword and stopped trying to stab it deeper into the earth. I just tied the rope to the handle, trying to make it as tight as I could.
“Why didn’t that dumb barbarian just tell me they’re about to start attacking?!”
Right as I finished, I heard the sound that summoned both fear and excitement.
“GI! GI! GI GI GI!”
“REE!”
“CHARGE!”
One way or another, I was going to get out of these tunnels.
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