The following two days went by quickly for the team as they made their way up the mountain side. Cade had set a goal for them to all get at least one stat increase, which had been a more easily attainable goal than he had guessed. They had fought a few dozen different instances, many of them being a deer creature or a bear type monster. Unfortunately they did have to fight a couple different types of bugs, but none of them were the tiny swarming types like the Voidsting Bees had been, which was a relief. Cade had upped two of his stats, pushing himself to D rank in all stats except Mana Generation. He figured he was at the cusp of moving into the D rank as a whole, and the others were right there with him. Brandon had managed to up his Dexterity to C, but his Durability hadn’t ranked up, which made sense for his assassin style build, so they weren’t worried. King’s stats had gone the opposite, his Durability spiking to C rank and his Dexterity lagging behind a little bit. Frida had pulled her Dexterity and Intelligence up to D rank, but that made sense with how far ahead of them she had been just a couple days prior.
They had managed to earn a decent amount of coins and void hearts, padding their inventories with useful items. After fighting all day, their night had been spent around the fire discussing what the important things for them to have on hand were, and what situational items they believed each other should have as well.
(ADJUST ITEMS AND COINS AND HEARTS TO REFLECT A MASSIVE COIN DIFF AND MAKE SURE ITS BALANCED.)
Cade
Cade was feeling good after their almost three day jaunt through the forests below Mt. Hood and their subsequent walk up the mountainside. After deciding to take a little longer to really clear the forest of foe’s, they had discovered a path leading up the side of the mountain, and had been hiking it for a while when they discovered another cave, much like the previous ones. The entrance to it looked almost manufactured, leading them to think it was probably an instanced cavern with some type of fight inside. They sat down outside of it, studying it as they figured out what they wanted to do. These caves were risky, but they had steadily become stronger as they had fought the last few days. After a bit of rest and some food and water, they decided as a team to cross the threshold and fight whatever was behind it.
King led the way, his shield held out as he disappeared through the barrier. They knew not to dilly dally; remembering one of the last times that King had been left to fight for several minutes before they had joined, even though only a few seconds had passed for the outside world. Whatever controlled the instances had some type of time altering ability and made it so time was heavily compressed inside of the instanced caves. They all jumped through and were surprised at what they saw. At this point they had run into two types of cave instances; the wave type and the more normal cave type with a boss monster at the end. This one was different however - inside of the cave was what looked like a contained world, almost like there was an entire pocket of outside space contained within. The entire space was filled with greenery, grass and plants spread all over, the walls of the cave they had been in were completely hidden. The center of the instance held a small wood cabin. Smoke blew out of the small chimney on one side, but besides that there were no distinguishing features they could find.
“King, approach slowly, we got your back.” Cade whispered to them. King started advancing, his shield arm raised and forward with his gauntleted hand supporting it. Brandon stayed close this time, stealthed but behind King, with Frida and Cade following behind the two of them, weapons at the ready.
[ King, move your shield and I’ll open the door when we get close. ] Brandon sent to the chat, opting to keep quiet so as to not break his stealth. King shifted to the right slightly, Brandon reaching out to pull the latch on the door aside. As soon as he did, the world froze; but no light flashed. Cade was instantly on high alert, his new senses and strength pushing as hard as he could on their paralysis. There was no status on any of them, Cade noted, but he could move his eyes just enough to see his companions. They were also completely frozen.
A bright red menu appeared in front of his eyes.
You have one minute to select two of your party to compete in this challenge. You may vote on your selection now. If a selection is not made before the time is up, you will be randomly selected.
A countdown in bright red lettering appeared above the menu, and a selection of choices with each of their names appeared in front of him.
[ What the fuck is going on. Anyone else seeing the menu asking for us to vote? ] King’s message came through. Good, glad we can communicate this way at least.
[ I have no idea, but we need to figure out who we are sending. Anyone have any
ideas? ] Cade asked the group.
[ I will leave this decision to you three. Tell me who to vote for. ] Frida responded.
[ Crow, you want to go? Whatever this is, I think your Dex and stealth is always a safe bet. ] King asked
[ I second that question. If nobody else wants to go, I’ll join you? ] Cade threw out quickly.
[ I can. Are you sure you should come? Would King be a better choice with his defense stat? ] He typed back. The timer had reached 00:28.
[ Not a bad idea. King? ]
[ Can do. I got your back Crow. ]
[ Alright. Crow and King. Good luck, you two. Be careful. ]
Cade submitted his votes and was bounced from the doorway. He and Frida hit the dirt and skidded a few feet, still unable to move their own bodies. The door slammed shut and their teammates were gone from the weird instance. Their names had been greyed out as well, health bar and status unknown to them. Cade felt his ability to move come back and shot to his feet, Frida mirroring him as they ran towards the door. As they neared the strange cabin, Brandon and King materialized instantly and fell to the ground. Brandon was not doing well and King was missing a chunk of his head. He was still conscious, but blood was freely flowing and he was stumbling to get to his feet. Cade noticed that his right foot was also shattered, his ankle turned around nearly backwards. Brandon had several stab wounds across his torso, as well as a massive slash down his back running towards his right thigh.
“Shit, what the fuck happened? Frida, I don’t think our normal elixirs are going to fix this. How much money do you have?” Cade had flipped Brandon over and had pulled out all of his gold, handing it to Frida.
“I have 14,000 on my own. With yours I have 22,000. Here, take this.” She handed Cade a glowing golden elixir, having bought another of the expensive items.
“King, I need you to give me your Void Coins. Can you understand me?” She firmly spoke to King, shaking him slightly. His coins clattered to the ground underneath his limp hand at his side. Frida grabbed them and produced another golden elixir. Cade dumped his down Brandon’s throat, and Frida did the same to King. She held a towel she had produced from her inventory up to his head wound. They both started to shake, Cade hoping that meant the elixirs were taking effect.
“Come on you stubborn bastard, wake up. Need you around man.” Cade pleaded to Brandon, his injuries shining brightly as the elixir took hold. He looked over at King, also shining, and watched as his foot righted itself with a click and his head wound started to close. Frida took the blood soaked towel off his head and let the healing do its thing. After a few minutes, both of them began to stir, Brandon rolling over to throw up several times, and King shaking his head as if he was trying to shake something out.
“How do you guys feel? What the hell happened in there?” Cade tried to be delicate, as they both had almost died, but his curiosity won over and he had to know.
“We were transported into a clearing, kind of a version of this area but without the cabin.” Brandon spat between breaths and words as he cleared his mouth of vomit. “Did you give us those golden potions? I know I had some lung damage from the war, but I think whatever I had, is no longer there. It feels like I can breathe fully again. Thanks.”
Cade felt something barge past him, knocking him over from where he kneeled over Brandon. King rushed past and knocked Brandon to the ground again, gauntleted fist raising up into the air, ready to strike.
“You bastard, you used that ability, didn’t you? You’ve had it this whole time. You lied to us!” King swung his fist downwards, but luckily for Brandon and his insides, Frida appeared above him, catching his fist.
“Stop, King. Explain what is happening.” She said sternly, her Strength stat easily overpowering him, pulling him to his feet and off of Brandon.
“He used Reap. He has that fucking evil ability and he used it on the person we had to fight. I heard it and I saw his eyes.” King pulled his fist from Frida and stared daggers into Brandon. “Cade, he lied to us.” King looked his way and his face dropped in anguish as he saw Cade refuse to make eye contact.
“You knew? You knew the whole time and you lied to me? Why?” King sat down hard, his head in his hands.
“I’m sorry King, he asked me not to tell you. He didn’t want it to skew your opinions of him and we needed you in our party. You are our friend, and Brandon despises the ability nearly as much as you do.” Cade said sadly, knowing this would be a hard delivery.
“King… It started off that I wasn’t going to tell you because we didn’t trust you. It isn’t that way anymore. You are my friend, my comrade. I should have told you, I just didn’t know how. We were worried you would leave the party if we did. I’m sorry.” Brandon had also sat down, his legs crossed and his upper body bent over towards King.
“I only use it on evil people. I have never used it on someone who hasn’t tried to kill us. I promise. I never will either. I don’t want to kill, and I don’t want to be evil. I will however use it to make myself stronger. I want to be strong enough… No, I need to be strong enough to protect Cade, to protect YOU. Even Frida.” Cade looked over at Frida as Brandon mentioned her, studying her face for any signs of how she felt. Her face was impassive, giving him nothing.
“You lied to me. It was the only reason I left my friends… I didn’t trust them and I don’t understand how you think this is okay. Fuck!” King shouted, his voice filled with disappointment and frustration.
“Guys, you need to tell us what happened in there. We voted for you and then the next moment we were launched from the door and you were gone. We tried to get back to the door but you appeared probably three seconds after you disappeared, but you were both severely injured, almost dead I’d guess.” Cade felt scared, unsure of both what had happened but also what would happen with their group after this. Brandon had definitely used Reap inside, which meant there was a human being in there, but he couldn’t figure out how. Brandon sighed and looked up at him.
“We were pulled into the space I told you about, basically a mirror image of this one but without the cabin. Except there was a person there. A massive person, at least seven feet tall. He had a Nodachi, it must have been 15 feet long, and had wings and horns. It looked like he had been combined with a Dragon or something and he spoke to us.” Brandon looked down at his body and absently rubbed at the places he had been injured. “It said our names, not our new nicknames. It knew who we were, and it had its own name. Heretical Servant - Boynton, which seems like a simple enough name, but this guy was something else.” Brandon shook his head, eyes wide as he recalled the fight.
“It said our names and welcomed us. He? I guess? He tried to talk to us and his health bar was black as the void. We spoke with him for a second, asked who he was and why he was there. He just laughed, an evil warped laugh. He said he was chosen by The One to fight “inferiors” in service of it. It attacked us almost instantly after that.” Brandon swallowed and rubbed the back of his head. Whatever had happened had definitely gotten to him.
Brandon
Brandon selected his votes, putting one on him and one on Cade, even though they had agreed on King to go with him, he still would have preferred Cade with him for whatever was going to happen. A white flash covered his eyes, which was strange to Brandon as they had already seemingly entered an instance. His eyes adjusted and he noted quickly that they were in the same area as before, sans cabin. Out of thin air a black mist flowed and a massive man appeared. Heretical Servant - Boynton, appeared above him, along with a dark black health bar, nothing like the red ones they were aware of.
“Hello Brandon. Hello Elijah. Welcome to my domain. Pretty… isn’t it?” The monstrous form in front of them smiled evilly, the eyes above a solid black. “My name is Boynton, and I have been chosen by The One to eliminate inferiors. None of you are worthy, I’ll show you now.” The giant dropped down into a low fighting stance, a huge Nodachi sword appearing in his right hand. Without another word or waiting for them to respond, Boynton lunged forward with ridiculous speed at Brandon. King managed to get off a Dash Defense, blocking the first swing, but was knocked completely across the clearing, slamming into the plant growth covering the wall.
Brandon heard him hit, his breath knocked out of him with an “Oof.” Activating his stealth, he tried his best to move out of Boynton’s line of sight. He looked over at King, seeing him getting to his feet. Switching his attention back to their foe, he charged his newest blade and the Seax in his right hand with a Paralyzing Strike. His new blade glowed slightly under the enhancement and he ran full speed at the back of Boynton.
“You think you can get me with your tricks and tiny daggers, Brandon?” Boynton taunted him, but Brandon understood that this man was fatal and dangerous and took the taunt without reaction. He lunged towards the monstrous form, aiming to cut him in the thighs or hip. His blade hit and bounced off of a wisp of darkness that hardened and intercepted it. Brandon was rebuffed, but turned his momentum into a push off of its thigh to flip backwards away from Boynton. Brandon felt the Nodachi slice through his side, scraping up against his ribs, barely dodging a possibly fatal blow.
[ King, we need to coordinate. He countered my attack with that darkness. I think it protects him, and it can harden, my knife bounced right off of it. Ideas? ]
[ We can try to get him close, see if my gauntlet can hit him with any blunt damage? ]
[Good plan. I’ll follow up after your feint, draw him to me, then you hit him. ]
“Oh come on now losers, I know you’re talking to each other secretly! Anyone want to share with the rest of the class?” Boynton cackled and goaded them.
“Why are you fighting for the other side? What do you get out of this?” Brandon shouted at him.
“I got an offer, I took the offer. None of the boys in prison lasted long after The One offered some of us the Reap skill. I think I racked up 20 kills before I was taken somewhere and given this opportunity! It said all I had to do was kill, which funnily enough… is my favorite pastime! AHAHAHAHAHAHA!” He laughed maniacally, his voice much louder than a normal human.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
“Flash Step.” Was all Brandon heard before pain blossomed from his stomach. He looked down, his mouth agape as he saw the Nodachi had pierced him. Boynton must have used something similar to King’s Dash Defense. He looked up at Boynton’s black eyes and wild smile. Leaning backwards, he threw the seax from his left hand at the extended arm that had pierced him. It managed to land, somehow the darkness hadn’t activated. Brandon felt an ability he didn’t often use, activate. Blood Covenant activated but nothing changed as he still had the sword stuck in him. Boynton pulled his sword back, causing Brandon to shout out in pain as it cut back through his midsection. Brandon fell forward, his left hand covering the wound on his stomach. He knew it had gone through his back as well, so he pulled out a second tier elixir with his right hand and chugged it. Unfortunately this one didn’t instantly heal, but he could feel it doing its job.
“You rat fuck, that hurt! I’m going to cut you in half, you pint sized little shit.” Boynton screamed at him as he pulled the knife from his arm. Blood streamed from the wound, so Brandon was glad he had scored the hit. He didn’t say anything, but he hoped the Paralyzing strike had managed to at least do something to him. The other dagger would have been useless to toss, but it would have been nice if he could have scored a hit from that one.
Boynton ran towards Brandon, his strides bringing him in close faster than he could dodge, but fortunately… King was very good at his job and took the hit on his shield, the sword clanging and bouncing off away from them. King pulled his shield into his inventory and darted forward, lashing out with his gauntleted fist. He landed a hit on the off hand of the Heretical Servant, his closed fist and the collected kinetic energy of the fight so far unleashing into Boynton’s wrist. Brandon heard it creak, the bones cracking loudly under King’s fist.
Before Boynton could so much as react, the darkness exploded out from his feet, knocking both Brandon and King away. They both landed and rolled, jumping to their feet. Brandon cloaked and ran towards King. King, standing up, pulled his shield back out and placed it between Boynton and himself.
“Darkness Overclock.” Thundered out from their enemy, the darkness swirling underneath him as it flowed from his eyes. Brandon felt fear for the first time in a while as he waited to see what would happen. Boynton shot forward unnaturally fast, much faster than he had before. His Nodachi swept sideways towards King, Brandon unfortunately having to duck due to its length. King blocked it but was knocked sideways several feet, landing and trying to keep his feet. Brandon turned towards Boynton, his extra Ka Bar produced from his inventory in his left hand. He re-upped the Paralyzing Strike on both and tried to find an opening. Boynton had kept his focus almost entirely on King, and had unleashed a barrage of strikes on him. King had blocked several of them, only taking a small cut to the thigh after a bad redirect, but was holding his own even if he was being beaten back.
Brandon rushed at Boynton, his daggers flashing as he stabbed and cut with his daggers, trying to overpower the dark armor that appeared beneath his blows. Brandon dodged an overhead strike and cartwheeled away from him. He heard Boynton activate his flash step again, bracing for another hit by leaning forward to try to dodge, but this time it came from the back. He felt the Nodachi cut across his back, cutting deep in an arc that somehow felt both hot and cold enough to knock Brandon’s breath away. The cut went from just above his neck all the way down to his thigh, the deepest spot being down by his thigh. Falling to the ground, he rolled, the pain in his back being fought back by the elixir he had drank earlier. None of his wounds would be closing soon, but at least something was fighting for him here. He looked up to see Boynton rear back with his Nodachi, the point stabbing towards him in slow motion as his brain took its time realizing he was about to die. The blade took him through his chest, just below the clavicle.
King flew in just as he was stabbed, his shield coming down point first as he screamed loudly, shattering the sword. The piece in Brandon wasn’t going anywhere, but at least his sword was reduced. King turned towards their foe, but Boynton was faster - he stomped down with his forward foot, shattering King’s ankle and twisting it horribly. Boynton took the half of his sword and swung it at King. Brandon watched as it hit him in the head, blood spraying everywhere around them. Brandon was barely conscious at this point, but he somehow found the energy seeing his friend’s head sliced open. He reached up and pulled the nodachi fragment from his chest.
“REAP.” He screamed, his eyes glowing as he shoved the blade up into the flowing darkness of Boynton’s right eye. It went in and he felt it hit the back of his skull.
Cade
Cade couldn’t help but listen to Brandon in silence. The fight they just went through was absolutely bat shit crazy.
“That’s the last thing I remember before waking up to you guys saving us.” Brandon looked up, directly looking Cade in the eyes. “I’m sorry Cade. I didn’t mean to use it, but I did. I don’t know why, but I saw King go down and it angered me almost as much as when we saw Kaia die.” Brandon had started to cry, tears coming to his eyes. He looked down and hid his eyes with a hand, silent sobs wracking his body. Cade put a hand on his shoulder, but let him be upset. This was a long time coming and Cade knew he needed it. Kaia was still fresh and he hadn’t really spoken about her since her death.
“Cade… I need your help. I need to make it right with King. I found out his true name. Somehow that thing, the Heretical Servant, knew who we were. King is one of us and has saved my life more times than I can remember. Please… do what you can and tell me what to do.” Brandon pleaded, which worried Cade even more. Brandon wasn’t really the emotional type, so this must be important to him.
“I will, I’ll see what I can do. Get some rest, yeah?” Cade squeezed his shoulder again and got a nod in return. He stood up and walked over to Frida and King.
Frida gave him a look as he neared, but let him get close enough that Cade could sit down and talk with him.
“King… I’m sorry we didn’t tell you. Truly. Brandon took the ability out of a need for vengeance and he is willing to tell you who he has used it on and why. He won’t hide it any longer. It is an invaluable asset, and… I know you’re mad at me too, but the only reason we had that expensive elixir to fix my hand and apparently cure my unknown cancer was because he received it as a reward for a kill on the man that was attacking Frida. I’m not going to beg you, but just know that I would do just about anything to keep you around, if it came to it. Your friendship and companionship are worth more than anything else in this world to us, and we don’t want to lose you. Brandon feels the same way. Hell… I don’t think I’ve seen him cry since we were kids. I know that doesn’t have to mean anything to you, but we are sorry. You didn’t deserve to be lied to, and I promise, for the both of us, that we will never lie to you about anything ever again.” Cade knew he had said a lot, but King meant that much to them at this point. He sat silently, just looking over at King, hoping he would say something.
King finally spoke up after a few minutes.
“I need to talk to him - And no, I won’t try to hit him… yet.” He said pointedly, looking at Frida.
“Brandon, come over here for a second.” Cade looked over his shoulder at his friend across the way. He got to his feet and walked over to where they sat. He sat down near Cade, his eyes still focused on the ground underneath him. His fingers and hands were clenched tightly together.
“Why did you take it?” The words were aggressive, King not holding any of the vitriol in his voice back. Brandon stayed silent for a few seconds, Cade wondered if he was going to respond.
“When Kaia was killed, I swore I would kill the man who killed her, and use the ability on him. I took it out of anger, blind anger.” He quietly but firmly responded.
“But you used it on others, Cade told me several others. Do you view human life as nothing more than experience in a game? Even if that game is real life now, how can you use it on another person?” King had true disgust in his voice, the anger evident but contained as he railed Brandon verbally.
“The people I have used it against are not real human beings. They all tried to kill us, directly, no mistake about it. They either tried to prey on those weaker than them or wanted to take what we had for no reason other than to advance themselves or because it was fun for them. I’m not sorry for using it when I have. I would never use it on someone innocent or even misguided. Only those that are evil or who commit acts of evil.” Brandon had raised his eyes, meeting King’s angry stare. He was unflinching, even if his eyes were red and his face was swollen. Cade found himself agreeing with his summary, knowing Brandon would never use it out of hand. Believing he wouldn’t.
“So you get to judge who is good or evil and execute based on that? How is that fair?” King fired back.
“I am not judging anyone. I have only acted in self defence, 100% of the time. The men and women I have used it on have been killed in the heat of battle, and I have used it as I killed them normally. I have not purposefully used it on someone I would have otherwise not killed. I don’t enjoy killing other people, I never have. I was a Frontline Surveillance Officer during the start of the Continental Alliance’s fight with the Old Republic, and I saw a lot of fighting. To this day I still thank the powers that be that I never had to kill anyone. I was lucky, but somehow still ended up having to in this new fucked up world.” Brandon took a deep breath before continuing.
“Would you fault Cade or Frida for having to kill to defend themselves? I know Cade has had to kill men and women in self defense, and would do so again. I wouldn’t try to speak for Frida, so I won’t, but I don’t imagine her opinions to be much different.” They all looked towards her.
“You are correct. Unfortunately I have had to rid the world of evil more than once. This new world… it did things to people.” She shook her head sadly, remembering some untold memory, Cade guessed.
“Dammit. I know you’re right. I know that’s how the world works right now, but I don’t like it. I don’t like that ability even existing, and you let me down by lying to me. What am I supposed to do now? You aren’t wrong, I know you’re not evil, but I don’t like it.” His voice slowly got quieter towards the end. Cade wasn’t sure what to say here. Brandon surprised him by speaking up.
“King, we need you in this group. You are paramount to our safety, and likely the most important member we have. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you. I should have and I swear I won’t lie anymore, about anything. Please stay with the group, and let me earn your trust back.” Brandon sat up straight during this statement, after he finished he stood up and walked over to King, extending a hand out to him.
“My name is Brandon. My real name. I’m sorry that creature said yours, but I won’t tell anyone so long as I live if that is what you want. Not even Cade.” He said seriously, clearly trying to impart how much he meant what he was saying.
“I’m not happy with you, but I’m going to choose to stay.” King took his hand and stood. “I have questions… You need to tell me about when you’ve used it, but I understand, at least a little bit.” King took a breath and looked over at Cade. “And I’m still mad at you as well.” He pointed a finger at Cade, punctuating his words.
“Thank you Frida, for stopping me from punching his lights out.” He acknowledged her, a nod in return.
“My name is Elijah. I’ve guessed your real name is Brandon basically from the start, but whatever. Just keep calling me King. I like it.” He said with a quick smirk. “Now spill, man.”
Brandon sat down and pulled out a picture Cade had not seen in a while. “This man is Connor Phillips. He is the one that killed Kaia and used the Reap ability. After he killed her, I saw that I was also offered the ability. I took it and swore I was going to use it to kill him. Since then, I’ve used it a few times. Once on the group with the archer that shot you, once on the group that was attacking Frida, and then in that last fight.” King stared at him and nodded for him to keep going. “The first one gave me an ability - Blood Covenant. It allows me to heal by doing damage. Haven’t really been able to use that one too much yet. The second, the group in the woods, rewarded me with that elixir that I gave to Cade. The third… This one I am not sure about. It gave me something I haven’t looked into yet.” Brandon held his hand out, a metal pipe with a strange shape on one side appeared. It looked like an extremely basic key.
“It’s called the Key of the Gaunt. There is no other information about it available, but when I hold it there is a pull, almost like a magnet trying to take me somewhere.” He handed the key over to King, and they all took turns holding it and feeling the magnetism.
“Yeah, I feel it for sure. Something wants us to use this on it.” Cade was amazed at the strange craftsmanship of the object. He handed it back to Brandon, who took it back into his inventory.
“Have you looked at what else you got from the fight, King?” Brandon asked, and Cade realized he hadn’t even thought about what they could have received.
“No, but looking at it now… wow. I got an ability. It says its called Umbral Node - Travelogue. What the hell does that mean?” He used the ability and a small rod appeared in his hand. “So I can just summon a rod?” King asked, annoyed.
“Uhhhh… King? Look behind you.” Cade pointed behind King, noticing the swirling energy that had built up behind him. King turned around and flinched backwards from the blueish lightning and mist that had formed, swirling in the air behind him.
“What the fuck is this? Wait… I have a prompt. “Choose location.” Uhhh how about my parents house?” King shrugged and looked at his friends, none of them had an answer beyond shaking their heads. “Okay, location is chosen - and now it says to place the rod at this location.” King stabbed the pointed end of the rod into the dirt in front of him and walked over to the swirling mass. He reached a hand out, slowly edging it closer to it. All of sudden he was pulled through, his body warping as though he was being sucked into a black hole.
“What the hell, where did he go?” Brandon exclaimed.
[ King, where did you go? Are you okay? ] Cade shot out over their comm chat.
[ Yeah. I’m good. I’m in my parents' living room. I think that ability is a teleport. I’m coming back. ]
The portal brightened significantly and King shot out exactly as he had been before. Nothing changed with the portal, it stayed open behind him, which puzzled Cade.
“I was in my parents house, in Portland. That is a teleportation ability, 100%.” King had a
massive grin on his face. He walked over and pulled the rod out of the ground and the portal
disappeared without a sound.
“So you can control where we go? What are the limits on it? Try taking us to the top of the mountain!” Frida commented, and Cade agreed. This could change everything for them.
King looked at the rod in his hands and shook his head. “Looks like I can only choose locations that I have been to, but man… we can return to somewhere anytime we want. No more sleeping on the dirt! Beds and a home base are in our future! Hahahahaha” King started laughing happily, dancing in place with giddiness.
“Wow King. Nice find, man. You may be the first person to ever successfully teleport!” Cade clapped him on the shoulder, shaking him a little as he shared in his happiness. “That is an absolutely amazing war chest, but that was an extremely dangerous fight. If we get another prompt like that, the one with the votes, we should have a plan ready to go. Items, maybe the stat enhancers and some of the stronger elixirs at the ready. You two almost died, and if we hadn't trained for the last few days and earned so many coins… I’m not sure we could have kept you alive.”
“Agreed. We need to get you two one of those elixirs as well. It definitely healed some previous damage my body had, just like it did with Cade. I can move easier, like my joints are oiled after years of bad maintenance.” Brandon agreed.
“Okay, let’s worry about making a plan for the morning. King, let’s stay out here until we can test that ability more. I don’t want to risk having to backtrack here if we fuck it up.” Cade knew if they couldn’t get back here it wouldn’t be much fun.
“Agreed, I want to test this out at another time. Time to relax? I need some time to myself.” King agreed and walked off to the side, pulling a pillow and sleeping bag out to relax.
“Yeah, let’s stop for today. We can stay in here, mayb the time compression will be beneficial to us when we leave, if it’s like the others we have been through.
“I’ve got first watch then. I won’t be able to sleep right now, and I want to check out this key some more.” Brandon stood and walked opposite of King.
“Cade, do you think they will be okay? Teamwise?” Frida quietly asked.
“I do. I know Brandon is serious about making it up to him, and I truly believe King is one of the best people I’ve met, and that’s rare. If he can find it in him to forgive us and move past this, we will be good to go.” Cade nodded, contemplating what he could do to help. Cade decided to rest, and laid down on the ground. He pulled up the Guidebook and looked at what had been happening according to the rest of the world.
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The One: LOCKED
Divine Protectors: LOCKED - 15/15
* 4/15 Locations discovered. 11/15 Unknown
* Vatican City, Italy
* White House - Washington D.C., United States
* Sydney Opera House - Sydney, Australia
* Pyramid of Giza - Egypt
Dark Scions: 95/100
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It was great that another Protector had been found, and 5 Dark Scions have been taken down, which was good. It had only been a few weeks a this point but progress was good either way. Cade pulled up his stats and took a look.
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Total Rank: E
Strength: D
Dexterity: D
Intelligence: D
Durability: D
Mana Generation: E
* Mana: 25
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Not too shabby. Cade thought to himself. They just had to keep pushing forward. He felt himself falling asleep, the stress and fighting of the day taking him.