NOVEL NEXT Chapter 448 – A deal
Tess joins me as I take my seat off to the side, she looks back over at the rest of the group and sighs.
“I might have fucked up,” she admits, staring at me with that massive bruise around her eye.
“Did you?”
“Yes. Tell me, Nat, do you think I’m a bad person?”
“Not really, you’re just a bit twisted, like everyone here.”
“But I should have better control over myself, I should…”
I interrupt her then and ask, “Tess, you could say I’m bad with people, right?”
She doesn’t seem to mind the interruption and after looking me over a bit she smiles, her blonde hair shining in the light on her crown. “Yes.”
“Even as bad with people as I am, I’ve noticed something. Want to hear it? It’s about you.”
“Please tell me,” Tess replies, gesturing for me to continue.
“You always talk like you want us to be a group. Companions bonded through shared danger. But I’ve noticed something: You always seem to be putting yourself off to the side, instead of trying to be part of the group.”
I look into her gray eyes and continue, “You took on this bullshit leadership role - on the 4th floor, during the tournament, all the way up til now. You always keep yourself in check, trying to give them something to look up to, so that you can lead them and make the tough decisions on their behalf.”
I grab a small stone and throw it at Dravos, who seems to be trying to make his way to the platform, and he stops and returns.
“I don’t think that’s entirely bad, but you take it way too far.”
“Someone has to, Nat, and I’m good at it.”
“Oh Yeah? So killing the guide, throwing everyone in the group into danger, and getting punched by Sophie, was that all part of the plan, or did it happen because you got caught up in your feelings?”
“I will do what I think is the best,” Tess declares.
So that’s it, she won’t be honest even now? It’s almost cute to see her that way.
Even so, I already have a plan in mind. “Well, it’s okay. Do whatever you want, Tess, and don’t worry about the consequences. I will take care of everything, just this once.”
She has held up well so far, but I can already feel that weird pressure closing in around us, and once again our emotions are starting to rise against us.
Tess must feel it, but at the same time, I see hesitation. Between following her feelings and worrying about what might happen.
I stand to leave, giving her one last piece of advice, “I don't think sitting on the sidelines and watching our group advance is what you want, Tess. You'll need to give up some control to get what you're hoping for.”
I think a day passes, but that turns out not to be the case. The countdown timer clearly shows that we’ve lost at least a day and a half.
For the first time, I see the twins caught up in a fight, with Min-Jae, and punches thrown on both sides.
The Korean boy apparently made the mistake of showing concern for them and invited them to join in the conversation, but Aaron and Dennis refused. Min-Jae didn’t like that and decided to push the matter.
There were hurtful words said, and Maya eventually had to intervene.
The entire time Tess watched quietly, and our eyes met for a moment before she pulled her knees up to her chest and buried her face, deep in thought.
[You have defeated Inkmire Lurker - lvl 331]
[You have defeated Inkmire Lurker - lvl 346]
[You have defeated Inkmire Lurker - lvl 311]
[Lvl 262 > Lvl 263]
[Infusion - lvl 36 > Infusion - lvl 37]
I went out to hunt and kill these monsters alone. The same monster that took so much effort from my group before.
I’m strong to begin with and higher level than anyone else here.
The amplified emotions are fun to observe. The feelings I had back on the 1st floor, the emotions I felt back then, strengthened and hauled to the surface.
Do I need them? Could I get more out of them if I was more ruthless? My life is being threatened by an extremely dangerous being, and I could easily escape on my own. So why do I stay?
Because I can.
Every day I’m growing stronger and stronger. All towards my goal of keeping fuckers like the guy in the hole from being able to push me around.
Before returning to the group, I stop by the hole, only to see the thylarin brothers leaving it behind. Seems like group 4 let them pass again. This is the second time in the past few days.
“Welcome, Nathaniel,” the Champion greets me.
“Izzy, Min-Jae, and Sophie, they are the members of my group you think have a chance of getting you out,” I say.
He hesitates, seemingly surprised, but then nods with a smile.
I look down at him. “Why don’t we make a deal?”
[Tether - lvl 35 > Tether - lvl 36]
[Tether - lvl 36 > Tether - lvl 37]
[Tether - lvl 37 > Tether - lvl 38]
[Tether - lvl 38 > Tether - lvl 39]
[Tether - lvl 39 > Tether - lvl 40]
I return a few hours later to group 4’s campsite. Checking the time, I find that I’ve spent three entire days by that hole rather than the hours I’d intended.
The group still consists of group 4, Famir, Kallus, Dravos, Drekar, Heryd, and a few more people from Famir’s and Heryd’s groups.
Just by looking at them, it's easy to see the fights they've been through, and the wounds they now bear, likely the result of fights with people from their groups. The results are obvious, and evident in their behavior.
It’s been days since we’ve seen anyone else, and we’ve been down here for over a week.
Everyone else is running low on mana, struggling to scrape even the tiniest amounts from depleted batteries and their battered bodies. Even Tess is starting to feel the drain, with the exception of the store of primordial lightning in her crown.
Oh, and Izzy. I only learned this recently, but she seems to have a strong connection to Noodle, who has been storing some of the mana around us. The little snake is devious, he hasn’t been transforming all the mana he eats, in fact, he’s been saving some. He’s been storing it in a place even more separated from his body than my Mana Reservoir. It cannot be felt; it doesn’t even seem to affect the white sand.
It’s quite amazing.
Otherwise, the people are in shambles. I’ve seen them fight, scream, cry, and hurt each other. Placing their darkest emotions on display until they almost can’t bear to look each other in the eye.
Just that little display of amplified emotions reminds us why Sophie’s ability is so hated, along with people like her.
“Let’s head back to the Deathtrap,” I say, and find their eyes looking up at me. Some look like they’ve already given up.
Tess stands up first, followed by Famir, and slowly others get on their feet, moving like zombies.
Dangerous zombies that could easily decide to rush you in the blink of an eye and tear your head off.
Only my orbs light our way as we pass over the bridge and walk through the tunnels. It’s quieter than before, but there are no monsters attacking us.
When we reach the crashed ship, we find no passengers or bodies. Out of the almost 300 passengers, only our group of 20 remains.
Over the next few days, I direct them as we pull the Deathtrap apart, focusing on the control panels, and the core, taking valuable metals and mana stones for our use.
I blame the Champion´s bond for the loss of the white sand, the ones we brought here when we crashed. Well, at least we have the samples we sealed in the containers we made.
The opening we entered through is unusable; it's a very thick wall that only seems to work in one direction. It makes for yet another fascinating feature that I'd love to examine further, and with my emotions heightened as they are, I do just that a few times.
I’m constantly amazed by how much that prisoner was able to do from his cell, especially now that I know a bit more about it. I guess he wasn't a Champion for nothing.
Having gathered the materials I need I follow the instructions the Champion gave me, and we work building an array, step by step.
No monsters interrupt us, and now that they’ve finally been given some direction, the others seem to be a bit more lively. Heryd Kallus, and Sophie, wind up being the most help in the end.
The array is circular, similar to the ones we saw back on the 4th floor. The most important part is the coordinates, and for this, I use the ones provided by the Champion - something he got from an expedition 80 years ago. The coordinates should lead to one of the smaller forts in the central region. The coordinates were apparently provided by a man who had hoped that the Champion would escape so that his group would have a leader, and maybe even find a way to escape this moon.
Back then, his bond didn’t have quite as much freedom, so apparently, the expedition left this place alive, much to the Champion's amusement.
Out of everything, this is the riskiest part given that it relies on the coordinates he provided, but I have one good reason to think they should work.
“We’re missing the processing core, and the coordinates are loosely placed. Not to mention that the metals we took aren’t as conductive as I would have hoped, so the jump won’t be very efficient,” Heryd complains.
“He might have placed some traps. I don’t trust him, Nat. If something happens to Izzy…”
“The SDAT doesn’t have any more arcanadium we could use. These high-quality mana stones are all we have,” Kallus informs.
I answer each of these worries, and we continue to work longer and longer. Day and night, I would say if it were even possible to tell.
During one of my breaks, I take Biscuit into my arms, though he remains exceptionally quiet.
I sense his body pushing into mine, and even his breathing is quickened. Sometimes he lifts his head and growls into the darkness surrounding us, causing the feeling of pressure around us to disappear.
After a while, I take him and hand him to Izzy, who looks up at me; her sister by her side as always.
I reach down and put my face on a level with hers. “Thank you for trusting me and enduring everything we’ve been through.”
She blinks a few times, but I ruffle her hair and turn to Sophie. I want to say a few words, but in the end, I say nothing. Sophie is smart; she doesn’t need anything from me.
I just nod and join the twins sitting off to the side.
“It will be funny to watch you two beg Min-Jae to forgive you for all the things you little twerps said.” I leave them with that one last sentence and head over to Min-Jae.
He looks up at me, his expression mirroring the others. I give his shoulder an awkward tap and quickly walk away, hoping my feelings come through like that.
“Need another beating?” Maya asks with a smile as I approach.
“No more beatings. So what do you think of our fearless leader?” I ask, gesturing over at Tess, sitting quietly on the sideline.
Maya seems to think for a while but then smiles brightly. “It might sound cruel, but it's nice to see her like that from time to time. It’s more fitting than watching her force herself to be our glorious leader all the time.”
Nodding in agreement, I take a few last steps to plop down on the ground next to Tess. I don’t say a word, and neither does she, and an hour or two passes. Maybe longer.
In the end, I think I hear a light sob, but I probably misheard, given that when Tess finally does look over at me she seems as normal as she can be.
“I just wanted…”
“Yeah, I know.”
“For a…”
“Yes,” I say interrupting again.
She quietens and looks away, as if ashamed to even look at me.
“Do you want to know why I let so many of these things happen as I stood by and watched?”
“I think I do, but please tell me, Nat.”
“I may be extremely socially inept, but this time I think I did better than you, Tess.” I say, not forgetting to rub a bit of necessary salt in the still fresh wound, but it’s no fun taunting Tess in this state, so I decide to give her a break and continue, “I don’t want you to sit off to the side and smile like some outside observer. It would be more fitting if you just broke down and sat with the rest of us, but in order to do that, you have to fuck up once in a while, like everyone else, you need to open up more.”
Tess seems to take a moment to think it over before nodding in confirmation. “You aren’t very good at this.”
“Right?”
The silence this time is a bit different.
"What about you, Nat? When will you open up?"
That question catches me off guard and I give it a moment of thought.
"I have time," I answer and stand up. “We will activate the array in a few minutes, so be ready, okay?” With these words, I leave her.
Stopping by Min-Jae, I gesture at the twins, “What a bag of dicks, right?”
Then, I quietly let slip a few of the things I heard the twins say - things they definitely wouldn’t want any of the girls to know. Min-Jae can decide for himself if he wants to drop that nuke.
Lastly, I find our petite healer, missing both of her arms, her own body used as fuel for her healing skills.
“You might be worse than me,” I gesture with my both still-present arms.
She stares at me, and I think she may have said something rude a few days ago before our emotions calmed down.
“Nat, no more fucking dark tunnels after this,” she says in the end.
"Yes, let’s try to avoid that."
As a reward for enduring so well, I pinch her nose and pull, making her shake her head from side to side. I halfway expect her to growl like Biscuit.
Then we collect our small group into the teleportation array. I have three spears, my damaged arcane items, containers full of white sand, and more, everything we can fit even to the point we have to squeeze together.
There is no need for more words after a few days of preparations, but I can tell that most of them look nervous, unsure of what is going to happen.
But not me.
My crown finally flickers and disappears, all of the mana it was holding having been funneled into the core and used to power the array. The inscriptions lighting up as they burst into activity. It takes more and more of my mana as my reserves dwindle, nearly all of it gone, yet I still push and push, sharing the pressure of activation with the materials.
The iron creaks, the sides melt, and the core cracks.
My Mana Wavelength Iris picks up the slack, and I let part of that mana flow through my body, shaping it until I finally activate the array I wouldn’t have been able to make on my own. I then make one last-second change that almost breaks the array, and a wave of mana crashes into me, causing some light damage.
Then the bright light flashes, forcing me to squint my eyes.
When I open them again, I’m still in the cave. All the equipment gone, all my items.
The array is now broken, collapsed into a molten heap as it gradually cools, the singed inscriptions letting out a dim light.
Other than me only Dravos and Drekar remain, looking around in confusion.
Here was a very well-hidden trap in the Champion’s array, set up so I would stay, but these two were supposed to escape.
I collect the tiny bits of mana still floating in the air, coat my arm in it, and slash twice.
[You have defeated Manabreaker - lvl 286]
[You have defeated Manashroud Shaper - lvl 288]
Even before they fall dead, black smoke begins to aggressively bubble free of their dead bodies, surrounding me like a whirlpool in reverse. The pressure on me increases my feelings of fear, and I can feel the anger radiating from that being. From the Champion’s bond.
It crashes against me, dragging me across the ground and smashing me against the wall over and over.
Even the feeling of pain is amplified now, as a huge amount of mana flows into my reservoir from my passive. But the bond is tossing me around with a force I can feel, even through my unique passive.
Something inside my body breaks, and I taste rust in my mouth, but I still smile.
The bond finally stops throwing me around, and the black smoke halts just an inch from my face.
“How about we go have a chat with your master?” I ask.