Two blades swiped at Alan from opposite sides. A third blade swiped downwards from above, like a guillotine. Alan dived to his left, dodging two of the blades. He used his knife to cut through the third. As Alan charged at the golem it tried an additional series of triangular attacks but each time Alan was able to successfully avoid taking any damage, inflicting minor wounds with his counterattacks instead.
Alan finally made his way to the golem’s body as its eye began to charge a blast. He stabbed forwards, driving in the blade and lightly pushing it through at Eve’s command, letting go of the knife. With his momentum Alan sprinted around the golem, catching the knife mid-air as it fell out the other side, having pierced the golem all the way through. For good measure, Alan immediately reversed his grip on the knife and stabbed the eye at the opposite end, twisting viciously trying to inflict as much damage as possible. A split-second later, the golem shut down.
x5 Bonus XP for slaying an enemy over 1000 levels higher than you!
x112 Level up!
Gained over 100 levels in one battle! +100 ability points
As his adrenaline began to wear off Alan looted the two golems before collapsing onto the floor, exhausted. They each dropped small crystalline cubes of dark green energy and a scientific design. One design looked to be a blueprint of the golem’s eye-weapon; Alan was hopeful that Phantom would be able to incorporate it into his own bionic eye. The other seemed to be part of a larger diagram that when fully assembled would be able to give metal golems technological psionic ability, or at least that was Eve’s hypothesis. Both would sell well, solving Alan's debt.
Chapter 20
After resting for an hour, Alan headed out, his armor’s basic invisibility active. Eve figured that they couldn’t rest for too long as there would be patrols sent out to find them. She set a pace of a quick jog, and guided Alan on a pathway to the nearest hub area. Once there, they could hopefully hash out some sort of deal with the warden AI; otherwise they would need to try to find a friendly group of players to survive, which was unlikely to say the least.
The run was uneventful, though tiring. Eve alerted Alan to any traps or obstacles, as their safe return to the Black Rose guild headquarters was paramount. Down a third secret path, past a few trivial puzzles, Alan found himself before another cubic structure, slightly larger than the previous two. He quickly narrowed his focus onto the machine presence and sent out a message.
Let me talk to the Warden. Please?
… Systems Initializing. Error. Warning: Limited Power.
Request Acknowledged. Warning: Main Systems Offline.
Shortly thereafter, Alan finally felt the presence he associated with the Warden attempt a connection to him, which he accepted immediately.
What, Betrayer, here to gloat about your victory? Let me assure you that you will not leave here alive, the Warden sent in a curt, threatening manner.
Um, actually I sort of wanted to explain my actions, Alan thought nervously. Look, you can review the footage, but the Predecessor was going crazy, and basically threatened to kill me. If I didn’t follow its orders, I’m sure it would have killed me and taken out the crystal itself. This way, you didn’t lose the energy crystal. I really want to study it so I can complete this quest, Alan said truthfully, without letting the Warden know there was a second way to possibly finish its task.
The Warden seemed to consider Alan’s response carefully, weighing its options. I may have miscalculated; I can see how you proceeded through these actions with your misguided biological judgment.
Alan simply accepted the Warden’s comment, not wanting to cause any trouble, ignoring Eve who seemed to readily agree with its sentiment.
Apology acknowledged. As finding a suitable guardian will prove problematic with the facility’s current capacity, I will grant you a brief period to study the power crystal. However, if you fail to return with it holding just as much charge, there will be dire consequences. Do not presume this is a completely isolated facility. One of my wardens has collected your soulsteel knife, and will only return it if you complete my task.
Um, sure, sure, Alan agreed, wondering what else the facility could be tied to.
Eve immediately chimed in. At this point, based upon the Predecessor’s remarks, I believe this is a facility constructed by the mysterious Lords of Life, who disappeared after their great war with the Predecessors. It is generally assumed that they lost the war, but after hearing the Lord of the Abyss’s account I am not so sure. Then again, this is only a possibility, as there have been countless Predecessor civil wars throughout history.
Two messages popped up before Alan:
Missing Systems Updated:
You have been reinstated as friendly with the Abyss Labyrinth. The Warden has given you five years to study the energy crystal before returning it. You may anger an unknown faction for failing to complete this quest in the Warden’s favor. Soulsteel Knife added to quest rewards.
The Last War:
Discover more information about the final war that took place in real life, and the mysterious Lords of Life.
Rewards: ???
Penalty: ???
Very well, the terms of our agreement have been updated. You will be guided back to your starting point, Traveler. I wish you luck in your exploration; you do not understand the entropy that will be unleashed should this system run out of power. The Warden shut off its communication.
Alan turned to the only open corridor, and found the familiar slide. This time it slowly began to pull him upwards. Exhausted after the exploration, Alan fell asleep, Eve ensuring him she would wake him if action was needed.
***
A few hours later, the slide finally reached the hub Alan had come from. He quickly activated his basic invisibility and proceeded back to the lift up to Black Rose territory, avoiding the slimes that had begun to respawn. To his relief, he found a bored looking Black Rose pilot waiting at the bottom of the lift, still waiting as Alan hadn’t respawned.
Alan took the lift upwards to emerge into what appeared to be a Black Rose hangar bay. A series of messages were displayed before him, letting him know he successfully completed the Escape! and Mad Gamble quests, and was now an official member of the Black Rose guild, open to promotions. He received 5000 guild points, and 4 levels. Alan was told he was back in a safe-zone, and he let out a slight sigh of relief as he received a notification that a player had sent him a message. To his surprise, Alan saw that it had been sent from Icewolf.
Icewolf: Hey Alan! I know I said not to contact me until you had the money, but circumstances are changing faster than I anticipated. There are devices that allow for secure, face to face conversation. I’m sure your new guild has one. Let me know a time that you can talk.
Alan’s quest updated:
Find Icewolf Updated:
New Option: Message him privately to set up a secure line to talk to him.
Reward: Additional information, ???
Time Limit: ???
Alan quickly sent a reply to Icewolf that he was available to talk as soon as possible.
A few minutes later during the short flight back to the Black Rose guild headquarters he got a reply that Icewolf would be available in a hour or so, at about 2200 Khersath Standard Time.
The first thing Alan did once he was back at the Black Rose base was head to the nearest Administrator and pay five diamond marks to transport the soulsteel knife, black power crystal and Predecessor blood to their secure vault. Eve estimated that each item had a potential market value of billions of credits, and Alan wanted to make sure they were safe. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust the Black Rose guild’s security, it was just that it seemed the sensible thing to do. For one, the Vault had never been stolen from, while guild base raids were not unheard of, even if they were technically illegal on Khersath. Additionally, there was a policy in place which stated the Administrators would pay back a lost item’s market cost in marks, essentially twice what anything was worth.