Chapter 60 – The Enemy of my Enemy

The elixir tasted awful.

Like Everclear and Jägermeister mixed together and lit on fire. It didn’t just taste like fire, it burned like fire, and not the good kind of burn that comes from an aged whiskey that fills your belly with a warm pleasant buzz.

No. This was just straight fire.

It burned going down. It burned in his belly. It burned his insides. It burned everything.

Jack convulsed on the ground in pain as he felt the elixir slowly run through his mana channels leaving a trail of burning fury in its wake. He spared what focus he could to watch as his shattered or flat out missing mana channels turned a cool hot searing red.

Jack fell deeper into his mind as he tried to block out the burning pain.

“What the fuck, man? I thought you were supposed to help me?” Jack asked with an accusing stare at Happy Jack.

“Nope. I’m just here to keep that maniac in check.” He said with a glance over at Killer Jack – who was ignoring them both – instead entertaining himself by throwing daggers up into the sky and jumping out of the way just before they hit him.

I gotta get outta here before I go insane, Jack thought to himself.

Oh, and uh, I can read your mind buddy, came Happy Jack’s voice. Jack glanced over at him sitting in the hammock, smiling.

Jack ignored… himself, instead focusing on his mana channels. They weren’t cooling down at all, still radiating in a dangerous red glow. A notification dinged letting him know he got a new passive.

Mana Channels of the Transcendent Berserker - Passive

[Epic] [Rare]

Grants passive regrowth of destroyed mana channels.

Abilities with a strikethrough? That's new. Jack thought. He focused on the epic rarity to see if he could get any additional information.

[Epic]

Error. The current mana levels available are unable to sustain this passive. The passive ability has been downgraded in rarity until appropriate mana levels are reached. Results may vary and intended use may not work until the environmental mana has reached appropriate enough levels.

Jack stared at the message. Results may vary. The Tower is giving me fucking legalese. That can’t be good.

Sprawled out on the ground and breathing heavily, Jack tried to distract himself from the pain ripping through his mana channels. He couldn’t tell if anything was happening, it didn’t seem like it, other than something involving Andurian was once again causing him as much discomfort as possible.

He spent the next several minutes cursing Andurian, his mother, his grandmother, and the horse he rode in on for all the bullshit he put Jack through since he started in the tower. All that came out was a ragged

“Fuck…me…”

A large shadow suddenly fell on Jack.

“So…?” Came Onem’s voice.

“So.. what?” Jack said through gritted teeth, staring at the ceiling. “What the fuck was that, man? Why the hell did you make me drink that? Don’t you need it? I swear, giving a slave valuable treasure that will inevitably make him stronger is like a bad movie cliché #3…” Jack complained, venting all of his frustration at Onem.

“I don’t have use for any such elixir. Despite what you may believe, destroying your mana channels is the feat of either idiots or mad men. Yes, I include my brother in the latter group. If it was really so common an issue, Gurthok wouldn’t have had to go to that cursed mage for assistance…”

“Andurian… is a mage?” Jack asked as a surge of pain racked his body.

“Do not speak his name in front of me.” Onem hissed.

“So… That guy is a mage?” Jack tried again.

Onem sat there for a long moment, deep in thought.

“That man was many things… I doubt the elixir was truly a product of his. Likely one of his disciples making an offshoot of one of his inventions. If it was truly made by… Andurian…” Onem snarled, “Then I suspect it would have eventually turned my brother into some eldritch terror abomination that would have consumed and devoured our clan.”

“So Andur-… Ugh… That guy made monsters?”

“He’s made anything and everything that satiates his curiosity. His inventions generally started out with the pretense of a noble cause. At least, the history books will say he is good intentioned, but the man is simply unable to control himself. He can’t leave well enough alone. He pushes against all common sense until his pursuits warp from good intentioned to cruel and evil. You will find few who have not suffered at the hands of his inventions. Now I discover my own brother has been drinking from his well of poison and has commissioned an elixir from the man.”

“Wait. Andurian is alive?”

“Of course he’s alive.” Onem said matter of fact.

Jack squinted at the draugr for a long moment. Something wasn’t adding up. Outside of the dungeon, people had referred to anything related to Andurian as relics from the lost age. Yet here was Onem talking like the guy owed him money. As if he was alive and well, even. Just how far back in time was this dungeon?

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“So if this Andurian fella is really such a bad guy and everything he makes goes to shit, why the hell did you make me drink that? By your own logic, doesn’t that make me…umm… fucked?””

“Curiosity.” Onem simply offered.

“What? That’s it?”

“The secret of my brother's technique to repair his destroyed mana channels has bothered me for years.

Now that I know how it works I can experiment with you and discover ways to defeat it.”

“From slave labor to lab rat. Is this a promotion or demotion?” Jack groaned.

Onem just gave him a cruel smile. “Tell me, what is the current state of your mana channels?”

“OwOw, OhGodOhGod, WhyMe, fuckfuckfuckfuckFUCK, OwOw, fuck, Ow.” Jack said flatly.

Onem simply stared at him with fury in his eyes. The slave manacles sent a shockwave into Jack which causd another wave of fire to burn through his body. Jack sighed.

“They're currently on fire and it’s extremely uncomfortable. Thanks for asking, dick.”

“That’s it? They aren’t regrowing?”

Jack stared at the channels in his arms first. They were “shattered” and in pieces compared to the channels in his legs, which were just straight up gone. All the tiny pieces of his mana channels were glowing a hot red that was somewhat painful to focus on, like the burning was searing his mind as well as his channels. Being bidden by the manacles Jack stared more deeply at them. It was like watching paint dry or watching grass grow. Something might have been happening, but he had no way of really gauging change or progress..

“If it’s working, it's happening slowly.” Jack eventually offered, “The notification I got said the mana isn’t strong enough to sustain the passive and the results may vary.”

“Hmm….” Onem let out as he leaned back in his throne. “Halldis is still categorizing many of the potions and elixirs recovered. Perhaps there is something that can help speed up the regrowth…” he said, more to himself than Jack.

“Then what? Why are you so hell bent on restoring my mana channels? What’s in it for you?”

Onem sat there stroking his chin, still lost in thought as he stared more through Jack than at him.

“Tell me… You had mentioned before you were on some sort of mission to kill my brother, no?”

“I think they're called quests now.” Jack answered.

Admittedly, this was another thing that bugged him about the dungeon. Normally he simply wouldn’t care about discrepancies like this, but there was something odd going on and Jack had way too much time to think about it lately.

Onem didn’t seem to know, understand, or acknowledge that he was in a dungeon. Even weirder, he didn’t seem to have any idea about the existence of the Tower. Like Onem and the dungeon was a remote island village, untouched by modern people, still living in huts and hunting with spears.

It was such an odd inconsistency.

Jack had assumed that everyone was playing by the same rules in here. Onem didn’t seem caught off guard by any of the system terminology, but the Tower seemed to be blocking some information from Onem and translating other information differently. Jack had no idea why. The Tower was playing some sort of game here, and Jack needed to figure out what it was so he could fuck up whatever plans the Tower had.

“Yes… Your quest to kill my brother. And who issued you this quest?”

“The… Tower?” Jack tried, curious to see how Onem would react.

“The Tower…” Onem said, squinting at Jack. “You’ve made mention of this organization several times before. Tell me, why do they want my brother dead?”

“Hell if I know. I’m just the guy they hired to kill him.” Jack said, playing along though it didn’t seem to matter if he did or didn’t.

“So you’re nothing more than a hitman.” Onem said matter of fact.

“I prefer assassin.”

Onem fixed Jack with a considering gaze.

“What If I told you I was planning to usurp my brother?”

“I’d tell you that your dumbass descendant outside the dungeon already tried that shit with his dad. It’s pretty unoriginal as far as evil mastermind plans go.”

Onem’s eyes flashed in rage for the briefest of seconds before returning to the same considering gaze.

“The treasure ended up being far less… lucrative than I was hoping for. My brother buried little that could be used by anyone other than himself. Halldis was foolish enough to let slip the Valkyries, so using them is no longer an option. I need capable warriors to help me kill my brother. I’m curious just what kind of fighter you’ll be once you have your mana channels restored. Fighting against me without access to mana is quite the feat.”

“Are you offering me a job? Listen, if you want me to assassinate your brother, I’m going to need my old team back. Which means you need to let me go so I can go find Hannah.

Onem gave a deep belly laugh that rang throughout the throne room. A tear of black blood leaked from his eye and Onem wiped it away with his finger. .

Jack looked at the draugr as though he had gone insane.

“Assassinate my brother? If such a feat was possible, I would have done it a thousand times over. Believe me – assassination under the cover of darkness is nothing more than a midnight snack to my brother. No. I need soldiers. Warriors capable of laying siege against my brother.”

“Didn’t you literally just tell me that your brother used to take on armies by himself, plus doesn’t he have his own armies in here?”

“My brother has never faced off against an army prepared by me. As well, I’ve managed to convert at least half of his forces to my own. They await my orders to turn on him and his guards.”

Jack stared at Onem, his mind racing.

He was missing something here. He just didn’t know what. There was no universe in which this wasn’t a trap. Jack pulled up the quest again and glanced over it.

Quest: The Secret Dungeon of Gurthok the Berserker

Quest Tier: Rare

Quest Sponsor: The Tower

Even in the afterlife, Gurthok could find no rest. His only solace being an eternal war where the flames of his rage could burn forever.

Objective:

Destroy the forces of Gurthok the Berserker

Slay Gurthok the Berserker King.

Reward:

+5 Levels

+5 Skill Points

+5 Rare Tower Store Coupons

+1 Random Upgrade to tier level: Rare

Kill Gurthok and his forces. Was Onem still part of his forces if he was also trying to Kill Gurthok? Jack's real hang up was that if he killed Gurthok with Onem’s help, wouldn’t that just end the dungeon along with Onem? Certainly, the draugr wouldn’t be on board with that, and Jack definitely didn’t believe the Tower would contrive a situation in which it would do something helpful for him. Something was going on.

He really needed Hannah. She was the one who thought through all this crap. It was starting to make his head hurt.

Who fucking cares. Just kill the guy, came a voice that was both Jack’s voice, and not his voice. And if it ends up being a trap, kill the Onem fucker too. Kill everyone until you’re the only one left standing.

Jack glanced in the back of his mind to see Killer Jack standing there, staring at him, a dagger sticking out of his foot where he had either missed a catch or just forgot to dodge as he started talking.

Jack glanced over at Happy Jack, who gave him a shrug. “Don’t look at me. I didn’t know he could talk either.”

Jack rolled his eyes and tried to ignore his growing insanity. Killer Jack did have a point, though. There wouldn’t be any problems if he just killed everyone. He looked again at his still on fire mana channels. If he could actually heal those, that would change things. If there was one thing he knew, it was that no one was prepared for just what kind of destruction he could cause at 100%.

Jack flashed Onem a smile.

“If I’m going to work for you, we're going to have to talk to HR about these manacles... And I want a promotion. I’m thinking a C-level position.”

Onem just smiled at Jack in return.

“And I want the Taskmaster as my secretary.”