Chương 12

Congratulations! You have received a Quest. Scope: Haven-level Quest. Description: It appears that your enemies want you dead. What a surprise, huh? But they don't only want you dead. They want to kill everybody who looks anything like you. They want you dead — or, more precisely, undead. A Boss has evolved and launched attacks on several Havens. Four Havens have already fallen, and now he has turned his army toward one Large Haven.

I interrupted my reading to turn to Bluemont while everybody else kept reading their own quest notification.

"Bluemont, what is a Large Haven?" Bluemont didn't look happy at the question. He reached for the bottle, found it empty, and kept hold of it.

"If you're asking, I suppose the damn System wants you to participate in some more Haven-level conflict."

"What are you talking about?" I asked.

"What the hell is that? Can you please just explain?"

"Calm down, kid. These mechanics used to not appear until the third floor. The fact that there was a siege here, however, lets me know that things have changed quite a bit. Give me one moment to look at something. The System should have added information to my own guide." I resumed reading my own quest while Bluemont looked through his guide. Objective: Defend the Large Haven from the Boss before dawn. Am I asking you to do a Gandalf here? Perhaps.

Just know that if the Boss wins, he will receive all the Quest rewards. Settlement occurs at the contested Haven. I am not sure you're going to like what that means. Reward: Well, let's see if you survive the night first. That was the only thing the reward line said.

"Goddammit, stupid AI," I muttered.

"Bluemont." I turned to him, with Marcus and Lucas doing the same. They had all finished reading their own quests.

"Yeah. So it appears that the mechanics have actually been fully introduced on this floor already. Let me explain very briefly what a siege is.

"When more than fifty percent of the last visitors of any given Haven are killed by one hostile force, that force can take prisoners inside the Haven. That creates a contested — or under siege — Haven. Prisoners can also be taken through normal abduction. But once this very specific kind of siege is started, a countdown appears. Either the original members who own the rights to that Haven liberate the place, or it will be turned over to the hands of the enemy." I looked at Bluemont in confusion.

"Wait, so this is all the damn Sorvos Empire and their machinations to attack us? Wasn't the war going to start once we got out of the tutorial? Didn't we need time to grow stronger? So this damn siege mechanic means that now there are villages full of undead corpses of humans — of people coming from Earth who didn't even have the time to grow any stronger, and they were just turned into meat for this… whatever evil piece of shit thing we're talking about?" Bluemont nodded.

"Goddammit," I said.

"God fucking damnit. This is unfair. So what do we do? What is this? Explain more about this."

"Well, if the System has introduced the siege mechanics, it means that you guys are now entering a very dangerous phase. My advice to you is very simple."

"Oh, okay." I nodded.

"What is it? Do we go and fight? There's a Large Haven — I don't know where. Do we get, like, an arrow that brings us there? How do we help others?" Bluemont looked at me with a scowl.

"No, kid. I'm not talking about fighting. You have to run."

"What?" I said.

"What the fuck are you talking about? If we got the quest, doesn't it mean that possibly there's a bunch of people fucking dying?" I shouted in Bluemont's face. But before the middle-aged, half-drunk man could say anything, time suddenly froze. Everything went gray. And I heard the System AI talk. Congratulations! You have been chosen for a streaming interview. You're so lucky.

Before I could realize what was happening, I found myself — still holding my spear, still cloaked in the Armor of Raziel, still dirty and bloodied from the fights of the day — in a studio with bright lights blinding me.

"And here we have John O'Donnell," a familiar voice said.

"Give it up for John!" A thunderous clap started, and I finally understood where I was. Lotheriel. I looked at the elf. He was, now that I looked at him, very tall — possibly ten feet tall. The proportions on the television had not been what I thought. I looked like a kid sitting across from this creature.

"Welcome, John. Welcome. I'm sure you have a lot of questions, but wait a second. As you can see, we are summoning a few S-Rankers from your country to open up this panel. And also, we have a little surprise, so—" The audience cheered and went crazy. I looked around, and I saw the guy who had survived the entrance test with the boulder. I saw the woman who had saved countless people by shooting arrows at impossibly far targets. We exchanged glances.

But the next guest — or actually guests, three of them — didn't come as calmly as we had. They came screaming. They were on their feet, holding swords. It was two men and a woman. Their equipment and weapons were almost the same. They looked disoriented, and the audience laughed.

"Well, well, well. Sorry, guys, I know you were in the middle of the battle, but don't worry. The tutorial is actually frozen for the duration of the main interview. So please take a seat. You're not going to die. Well — not during this interview. I'm not responsible for what comes after." I looked at the two men and the woman. They looked stunned. But quickly, as the cameras panned away from the elf for a second, the giant creature waved a hand, and I saw all three slam their asses into the chairs.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"We just had Team China here, and they were doing pretty well, let me tell you," Lotheriel smiled, introducing the segment. I hadn't been watching the television after the siege. Now, though, I understood that the program had probably started and I had missed its beginning.

"So, we have some of the best S-Rankers from the show. To be precise, some of them are triple-S-Rankers. We don't know what they've got from the System, but we know it has to be good." I turned to the man who said, very plainly, "Excuse me, Mr. Lotheriel. Would you mind explaining why we're here?"

"Leonardo Langdon for everybody — the genius!" Lotheriel laughed.

"Of course we're going to explain everything, Leonardo. Don't worry about it. And can I call you Leo?" The audience seemed very amused by that exchange. But the man, Langdon, just looked at the host and said, "You seem amused by my name, sir. But don't we have more important things to discuss?" Lotheriel clenched his teeth for a fraction of a second, then smiled again.

"Of course we have more important things to discuss. Why don't we get to that? So! We have some of the best fighters from America. Well — the United States, apparently. What you guys call your country was a little confusing. But anyway, these are some of the best contenders from the United States. They are not, of course, the only good fighters, but they are all the closest fighters to the event we're going to talk about tonight." The audience cheered, clearly knowing more than we did.

"So," Lotheriel continued, "it appears that, as General Skullthrax had announced, the undead are already shaking things up. I don't know what these people did, but the System AI must have been high on some undead juice to allow them to already start sieges." I felt a deep rage in my bones, but I just sat straighter in the armchair and said nothing, waiting. The only reason I did this — and didn't lose my mind — was that everybody else looked angry but calm.

Even the three who had possibly been fighting in the siege, which was probably the reason we were here tonight, were now looking cold and measured. I think that we all felt mocked by this abomination, and playing into his hands wasn't something we were interested in doing.

"So, if I know something about your world's politics, the Chinese have already ended several sieges. Of course, they were led by Alphas. It appears that the undead must really hate you, to spawn such a Boss on the first floor and to besiege a Large Haven nearby. If I wanted to be a little naughty, I would say the System AI is really trying to set up a good show for us. But we know the AI is fair. So, let's move to our divers." Lotheriel turned to the woman of the group.

"Miss Bryce, would you mind telling us — how's the fight going? Do you guys think you can win?" Bryce looked at the elf, not hiding a frown of disgust. However, she also didn't know what to say. From all the blood covering them, and the fear I had glimpsed in their eyes when they had suddenly been transported here, it wasn't hard to tell that they had been having a very hard time. Fuck, I thought. Fuck me. They brought us here just to make a mockery of these people? A mockery of people who might be about to die?

"We have received the coordinates," the archer woman said, "but, unlike what you said, we cannot reach the place in time. Otherwise, I would have taken the Boss on myself." We all turned toward the woman, while Lotheriel didn't look too happy about the fact that she had interrupted his question.

"Miss Miranda—""It's Miss Bryce," the archer woman said. The audience cooed at that, happy to see Lotheriel take a hit from Bryce.

"Miss Bryce," the Elf said between gritted teeth, "if you ran very fast—""No. I've calculated the distance. I won't make it in time. So, why are we here? Did you bring us here to goad us with a battle we cannot fight?" Before Lotheriel could say anything else, Langdon chimed in.

"I ran the same calculation. I won't make it in time either." He looked apologetically at the trio, who suddenly deflated. Lotheriel put a hand on his ear, with someone clearly speaking into his earbud, while the audience went crazy at the reversal of roles.

"Alright, alright," the Elf said, looking straight at me now.

"It appears, however, that if Mr. O'Donnell—""John, please," I interrupted him.

"If John is ready to risk running through the night with his ragtag band, he might make it in time! The settlement is barely an hour from his!"

"John doesn't have the resources nor the people to change this war," Miranda Bryce said, looking straight at Lotheriel.

"It's time for an ad break!" The host announced. Lotheriel seemed peeved by her interruption, and a screen suddenly went up in front of us, separating us from the Elf. I could hear faint screaming from Lotheriel on the other side. Meanwhile, terrifying images sprang up on the screen. It was the siege. The Haven that had been attacked was being swarmed by what looked like thousands upon thousands of Undead.

There were hundreds of Divers chucking Mana Bolts, Fireballs, and projectiles of all sizes, but without any precision, very few of the zombies remained down after being struck.

"They should have herded those zombies. There are very few that can cast magic or shoot from a range, meaning they could have kited them." I turned to see Leonardo Langdon up and standing by my seat. I got up as well, looking at the man in the eyes. He had a very plain look to him. Short dark hair, a plain face that could be lost in a crowd, and… a slight limp?

"Kite them?"

"Zombies are weak. They should have been running, sacrificing those who are not able to. I watched the broadcast—it was the first thing they showed. There are women and children inside, that's why they didn't run from the Haven. But now, they're boxed in, and if they don't win by dawn, the Haven falls to the Boss. After that, the Boss will apparently become so strong that nobody here will be able to take it."

"Wait, what's the Boss? And how would you kill it?! I can help!" Langdon looked at me in all seriousness, "they haven't shown the actual Boss. But it's easy to tell that if it's not in the open and if it can raise so many Undead that easily, it must be weak. Physically weak, that is. They can't kite the army anymore, but I would have kited while sending a scouting team to kill the Boss. Someone with good perception abilities." He looked at me with a strange intensity.

"What?" I asked. He shook his head.

"There have to be limitations to a Boss in order to make him fair. My guess is that it's stationary, hidden away in some cave or something, perhaps protected by an Alpha or two. That would justify an Undead being able to raise so many corpses on its own on the first floor. But I also suspect that if the Haven fell, the Boss would gain an insane boost in power, gaining as much physical power as corpse-raising power. In fact, I'd even venture a guess that it must be a cocoon of sorts.

Or a sarcophagus if they went with something Earth-themed. Something that evolves. But if you destroy it now, it's gone. And, since this is still a streaming show more than a Tutorial, they will probably have the entire army of zombies collapse afterwards." Langdon waited for me to say something, perhaps an excuse as to why I didn't want to risk my life for those people.

"How do I kill the Gnolls? Have you killed any?"

"Do you have some Hyena Anal Glands?"

"What? Yeah. Like… a hundred of them?" Langdon looked at me a little curiously.

"What?"

"Nothing… so, Gnolls are the only night threat. The Wild Hyenas drop them because back on Earth Hyenas use those secretions to mark spots and they have evolved to be able to smell them. That's why they added it as drops. There's always a catch. So, if you smear your legs with them, and you'll need about four entire glands to do so, the Gnolls turn neutral toward you. Just don't engage them or talk to them. They don't like to think too much about the furless Gnolls—as they call it."

"How do you know all of this? And what do you mean there's always a catch? What the hell? Who are you?"

"Engineer. Hobbyist DIY enthusiast," Langdon smiled.

"I watched a lot of documentaries. Anyway, be careful when you approach the Boss. It will surely—""Welcome back!" The screen slammed away and Lotheriel looked at us with a ravenous look, waving his hand and launching Langdon in his seat. I looked at the engineer, but when I tried opening my mouth to ask what I was to be careful about, no sound emerged.

"We have to sadly cut our broadcast short. It appears we have run out of time!" Suddenly, I was sitting back with Bluemont, Marcus, and Lucas.