Chương 14

I took the first step out of the palisade. My head was bowed; I didn't wanna look at the gnolls right in the eyes. I told the others to wait — there was no point in dying all together. So I made my way slowly forward. If worse came to worst, perhaps I would be able to use Judgment of Raziel to save my ass. The gnolls looked at me, almost confused, for a moment. Then they started sniffing at the air with their faces up, and then brought them down closer to the grass.

"Do you smell that?" I felt my hair stand on end when I heard the sharp, acute, almost laughing voice of the first gnoll.

"I did," the second replied.

"Is it one of us?"

"Ugh, I don't know. This entire dungeon is so weird. Should we kill him?"

"No." They lengthened the ends of their words.

"No, the dungeon might get mad at us if we do." I was surprised. Apparently the dungeon— wait, they knew about the dungeon? They— ah, I had so many questions for these creatures. But Langdon had clearly said not to mess with them too long. I also wondered — how the hell did Langdon know about all of this? Had he gone around gnolls on the first night? What kind of psychopath would try something like that, staking their life? I raised a hand, and the group soon followed.

We gave a wide berth to those gnolls, who just stared at us and shrugged, resuming their walk.

"Holy shit," Marcus said.

"They really didn't attack us."

"Yeah. Did you hear them talk?" I said. Marcus nodded.

"They have the weirdest voices."

"And they know about the dungeon?" Lucas added questioningly.

"What do they know?"

"I don't know," I said.

"I have no idea what the hell is happening anymore. Maybe they are, like, sentient creatures that were either created by the dungeon or trapped into it. And they revert to hyenas, though? Oh, fucking no. I don't even wanna think about it. Maybe I'll ask Bluemont." I caught myself when I was about to say Langdon. I wasn't even sure I would get another shot at meeting the man before the end of the dungeon. We made our way forward, undisturbed. Langdon was right: there were only gnolls out at night.

They appeared to be the main predator, and every other creature had seemingly disappeared. Another weird dungeon shenanigan I didn't even wanna think about.

"So what's the plan again?" Lucas asked, looking at me.

"We kill the boss," I told him.

"Yeah." Lucas frowned.

"About that. Like, are you sure that this is the right move?" I looked at Lucas, and I immediately understood where he was going with this.

"I'm not sure this is, like, a great strategic move. Logically speaking, other than the reward, there isn't really much to earn here. Maybe some levels, some experience, who knows?"

"But those people might die. Actually — let me take away the might. Those people will die if we don't do something. It's pretty much spelled out. And it's an hour stroll. If the mission is impossible, you can still back out, Lucas." Lucas shook his head.

"I'm just… I'm just saying," he muttered. Nobody said anything at that. We all knew we were doing something extremely, extremely dangerous. Both Tina and Hailey were in this because of the women and children, which had clearly moved their hearts. Marcus seemed to be doing this out of a deep sense of duty, which I admired in him. I was shaken by the innocence of it, maybe as much as Tina and Hailey were. But there was one feeling that was all-encompassing in my own heart.

Find this and other great novels on the author's preferred platform. Support original creators! Rage. I wasn't simply going on a rescue mission to kill a boss. I was stepping into a war. And I wanted to do everything in my power to destroy the undead. As we passed another group of gnolls, I suddenly took the Pet Biscuit out of my inventory, looking at them and thinking out loud.

"Do you guys think we could, like, get a gnoll companion to help? They're level sixteen and seventeen. They could probably really help us with the boss."

"Yeah, I'm not sure I want to offer a Pet Biscuit to a sentient being that knows about the dungeon," Hailey said.

"I agree with Hailey," Marcus chimed in.

"What if they attack us after you offer them the biscuit? If someone offered me dog food back on Earth, trying to become my friend, I would be pretty pissed. And I think the gnolls would be too."

"I actually think they would love dog food." Lucas shrugged.

"I think they're cats." I scratched my head.

"Aren't they, like, sort of felines, hyenas?"

"Beats me," Marcus shrugged.

"I have no idea." I put the Pet Biscuit in my pocket, alongside the two potions. We were following the giant arrow over our heads. I looked at my wristwatch: it was eleven thirty. We had been walking for more than half an hour. The settlement — the Large Haven — was supposedly about one hour away from us. But what we were after was the boss's location, which I knew the arrow must have been pointing at. We walked another hour, and we still didn't see much.

"Didn't you say it was about an hour?" Lucas asked.

"Yeah. That's what I heard on the stream, right?" I looked at him.

"So I don't know. Maybe it was an hour from the Haven, but longer from wherever the fuck the boss is." We resumed our trek. Everybody's nerves were tense like steel cables. About three hours in, something wet landed on my nose. Above us, the moon had mostly disappeared behind thick clouds.

"Ah, fuck. It's gonna rain too." I almost couldn't finish my sentence before being drenched in a thick outburst of rain. We walked for ten more minutes, when Lucas stopped me.

"I see something," he said.

"There's like a— I kid you not, there's a pyramid in the middle of nowhere."

"Of course there's a fucking pyramid," I muttered. The rain suddenly stopped while we were on a small mound, and I could see, far in the distance — perhaps a mile or two from where we were — the faint shape of a large pyramid.

"Oh, fuck," I muttered.

"Guys?" We heard Marcus' voice and turned to see him with his shield high, shielding both Hailey and Tina, while two gnolls stared at us.

"Marcus, don't worry. We have the…" I stopped myself mid-sentence, looking at my legs. The rain had mostly washed away all the anal glands we had smeared on ourselves.

"Holy fuck," I muttered.

"Lucas!" I shouted.

"Fire!" Lucas used Quickshot and immediately put two mana bolts into one of the creatures' chests. The gnoll staggered back, coughing blood, yet still alive.

"Oh, shit." Before I could call out anything else, the second gnoll executed a perfect spear throw — so fast, so powerful that despite the distance, it took Lucas's left arm at the elbow, completely destroying the joint and detaching the lower part of his arm. I looked in horror at the wound. Then my body moved on its own.

"Hold!" I said, and I started running at full tilt toward the two gnolls.

"The little thing is attacking us," the spear-thrower laughed, unsheathing a dagger.

"He doesn't know that he's our dinner."

"Yeah, I'm your dinner? Eat this." I had one throwing spear left, and I immediately cast Judgment of Raziel on the thing.

"Huh. Pretty sparks," the gnoll said. I threw my spear — not nearly as powerfully as the gnoll had done. The gnoll tried parrying the spear with its dagger, and if I hadn't had an S-Ranked skill, it might very well have made it. But the moment the dagger touched the spear, an explosion engulfed the creature and destroyed its body. Its partner was only partially caught in the explosion, and was already hurt from Lucas's bolts. It snarled at me and tried spearing me.

It was clear, given its superior size and athletic skill, that its stats were much higher than mine — it might even have had a Spear Mastery skill higher than my own, since the thing moved like a beastly martial artist. But it didn't have my Sphere of Intuition. I saw the attack aimed at my chest, and I just let it happen. The gnoll was almost confused as to why.

But when the spear not only failed to pierce my upper body, but also had most of its momentum altered by the Armor of Raziel, I looked at its hyena-like face and said, "Eat shit." Then I speared it through the eyes with my own spear, killing it on the spot.

"John!" Tina shouted, right when I was about to ask how Lucas was doing. When I turned, two more gnolls had heard the commotion and were running toward us.