77 Mistakes were made

"Found it!" Orisa yelled in excitement.

"W-w-what?!" Kanai was out of breath after throwing five spells in a row.

"A perfect spot for an amusement park, of course."

"Is this the right time?!"

"Oh, Kanai, don't be like that."

Orisa turned back to the mob and smiled cheerfully before stretching both hands in their direction. Around twenty Beasts were struggling to get closer to the pair of adventurers and could only throw occasional spells and ranged attacks. Those, of course, were absorbed by Orisa's new stationary barrier.

"-Shock Volley!-" -- "-Shock Volley!-"

Three Seals appeared in front of Orisa and spat out a horde of tiny lightning-enchanted darts. The volley rained down on the Beasts, causing them to wail in rage. Some of the projectiles bounced off of thick skin, but many more struck their targets, spawning electric arcs all over the victims' bodies. Several Beasts fell to the ground, disoriented or paralyzed, while others merely slowed down.

A week of intense hunting has passed. Aside from numerous hours spent on the fighting itself, Orisa and Kanai both substantially broadened their arsenals of spells. Shock Volley was a modification of Orisa's Enrage-free spell, Shock Poke. She used little projectiles with lightning Mana and enchanted penetration power to slow and stun enemies from a distance. Since they were complimenting each other perfectly, Kanai also produced a new spell to assist Orisa:

"-Field of Corrosion!-"

A cloud of dark-grey smoke appeared under the mob of Beasts and started dissolving their slowed and stunned bodies. The Field took Kanai's Corrosive Ray as a basis to create a static zone of similar effect. Its power was several times lower than the original spell, but the Mana cost went down considerably while boosting the spell's area at the same time. It made good use of the foes being disabled by Orisa's darts and slowly but surely melted them. Orisa and Kanai both were game nerds, so they came up with many other combined attacks and techniques to use in various scenarios.

Among other upsides of this specific combo was that these melted Beasts still left their cores; it made harvesting them that much easier.

"So, dude, how much does it make?" Orisa asked while stuffing the last core into a large reinforced leather bag.

"Let's see. Something around seventy unevolved cores and five evolved or close, I guess. What are we going to do with them, buy the entire Military?"

"I'm working on that, man. I think I'm close to something really cool. But I'm running out of potions as well, so that's a big problem."

"Then stop being a freaking addict already, perhaps?" Kanai took a bigger bag with unevolved cores from Orisa and asked: "So what were you blabbering about earlier?"

"Oh, yes! Thanks for reminding me about our next grand project, a One-time Beast Amusement Park!" Orisa's eyes sparkled.

"I'm worried about your mental health. Should we visit a doctor?"

"Don't be such a buzzkill, Kanai. I'm having fun planning to commit a mass-murder, what's wrong with that?"

"Yes, officer, this girl right here!"

Orisa ignored him and went towards her destination, a hill made out of solid rock with no grass or other vegetation. She had been roaming back and forth all over the hill for ten minutes before Kanai's patience ran out:

"Would it kill you to explain your grand plan already?"

"Right, sorry. So the idea is quite simple - gather Beasts and kill them."

"Uh-huh, it's not like we've been decimating them for the past week, right?"

"What was the biggest crowd we gathered?"

"Um..." Kanai was thrown off by a suddenly serious question. He recalled all their activities before coming with a rough estimation. "Around thirty-five, I guess. Why?"

"Yeah, nice. But now I'm talking about hundreds," Orisa exclaimed with a predatory smile.

---

---

Orisa and Kanai were sitting by a campfire under the tree and processing today's spoils of war. For Orisa's crazy idea to come to life, they needed tons of Mana ink which were impossible to get here in the wilds. After a careful and thorough study, they found an imperfect but reasonable substitute - processed Beasts' blood. It could transfer Mana the same way the ink does, although a little slower than the original. To process it and turn into a usable and ready for storage liquid, they used most of the chemicals applied to the Beasts' parts to prevent them from dissolving. And again, after a looking into the anti-dissolving agent, Orisa found that its main component was Mana core powder mixed with Mana-infused water.

Each time Orisa used Status and Condition spells to study the nature of items, she fondly thought of Rita. Orisa was quite skeptical after hearing her mentor's words about true mage's bread and butter spells, but now it all came together. Not only did she use these spells to produce substitution for some materials, but also came up with several new skills after scanning the Beasts.

"Have you ever considered that we are inside a game?" Kanai asked out of boredom.

"Huh? What exactly do you mean?"

"I know it sounds weird and far-fetched since we lack any understanding of this world's nature, but the way we are growing stronger is strange. I mean, we are most certainly leveling up, don't you think? When we just joined the Military, we could barely take several Beasts at once with our entire group. Now I alone can kill at least three at the same time. And I'm too afraid to think about your progress. It's hard to explain our growth as simple combat expertise. Our spells are many times stronger than they were before, of that I'm sure," he put down instruments and cores and looked at Orisa.

"Well, I also came to that idea earlier on. But, honestly, we have no way of proving or denying it either, except for the thing about us gaining more power. Let's assume that we are, indeed, inside a game. So what?"

"So what?" Kanai repeated her words with a confused expression.

"The fact that people die when they are killed hasn't changed. Would you treat your life differently? What about mine, then?"

"Um, no, probably not."

"And if we were to assume it's a game for real, I think we'd turn paranoid or insane rather quickly. Imagine talking to a person while thinking he is an NPC. Who is real, and who is a program? Is Tiana real? Are you human, Kanai? And what about me?"

"Okay-okay, I got it. I don't know, just thought that it might help us somehow. To gain levels faster, for example, or come up with abuses and game-breaking things."

"Again, if we have no means of counting experience gained or levels received, everything we could come up with will be a random guess. It's clear that we are growing, especially during this past week, although we haven't met a real threat so far. I mean, there was only one evolved Beast among this last pack, and we weren't ambushed even once. I guess we lucked out of most troubles?" Orisa thought for a moment about their past experience. They had been doing it pretty well past weeks, raising their teamwork and overall spell quality. But the success was most certainly due to them not meeting any real threat like the fights with evolved snakes or near the mountain village. "Okay, I digress. What I'm saying that if we can't measure our progress and control environment then there is no point in trying to figure it out. For example, if you knew that spiders give one hundred experience points while wolves generate only eighty, would you look for the spiders and ignore the wolves? It's not like there are fixed spawn points or something, right?"

"Yeah, sure. That aside, do you honestly think we were just lucky these past weeks? I thought we got that much stronger..."

"Well, it's true that we are tougher. For example, I could barely use four Mana layers before and now am proficient with five. We have more Mana, and our spells are perhaps five times stronger, too. But don't let it get to your head, Kanai. Beasts here are scattered and gather only when we attract them with Mana. They are quite docile and at least somewhat weaker than their friends in the central area. I think we'll be in deep shit if we were to encounter a pack of evolved snakes here in the open."

"Thank you so much for a thorough lecture, Orisa-sensei," Kanai rolled his eyes and got back to processing.

"Ara-ara, student-kun, we are not done here," Orisa wholly enjoyed Kanai's flustered expression before continuing. "You won't believe it, but I actually have an indirect proof of your theory."

"You do!?"

"Well, it's a stretch, but I'll leave the judgment to you. In fact, there are two things I found not making sense while I tried to come up with new spells. First is the fact that I can't considerably slow down the fall with Mana or magic. Whatever and whenever I tried, the best result was only a barely noticeable slow, and that's it. The same is applied to my attempts to fly or hover - nothing worked. The second thing is even more ridiculous, and I can demonstrate it to you if needed. To put it simply, I can't create stationary Force Walls or any platform on the height of ten meters or higher as they instantly dissolve. But they work just fine if I place them by a building or tree, or another grounded object. Both examples could be explained with me not knowing how to do things properly but can also fit into this game theory."

"Holy fuck, this changes... changes nothing, okay. But we may still draw at least something from this information, I think."

"Yep. But I'll stick to believing that this isn't some game," Orisa said in a serious tone. Kanai looked at her questioningly, and she blurted out: "I don't want to believe that you are not real."

---

---

Together, they moved the camp closer to the rocky hill on Orisa's insistence the next morning. Most bottles they had were now used to store what Kanai named a Blood ink with only a few spares to hold drinking water.

"I know you love dramatic pauses, but maybe it's time to explain what exactly are we doing here?" Kanai said tiredly. He had been working all this time without knowing their goal, and now he wanted some answers.

"Chill, bro, I was planning to tell you after our relocation."

Orisa crawled into the tent to cover from the rain, and Kanai followed after her. Despite growing weaker those past few days, the never-ending waterfall still drove them mad. A high humidity, cold weather, and heavy raincoats all made the pair wish for a change of weather.

"Okay, Kanai, listen up and promise not to scream."

"I have a bad feeling about this..."

"What we have been doing this past week outlived itself, I think. Throwing Mana left and right in hopes to attract Beasts and gather them in one spot was a great idea to start with, but we need to move further beyond."

"To infinity?" Kanai chuckled.

"Yes, and beyond," Orisa laughed as well. "Remember how Dippo explained the mechanics of SIRI? What happened next?"

"A horde of Beasts attacked?" Kanai muttered unsurely.

"And we have SIRI now, right?"

"Yes, so what?" It took him several seconds to notice a glint in Orisa's eyes. "Wait, WHAT?! No-no-no, fuck it. I'm out of here."

Kanai tried to stand up, but Orisa quickly pulled him back while laughing.

"Come on, don't fret like that. I have a plan."

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"That's the worst part!" he yelled at Orisa in frustration. "Say you are kidding!"

"Ch-ch-ch, that's how much trust have I earned?"

"Even less than that, you monster! You'll get us both killed."

"Okay, enough foreplay. Here is what I suggest. We dig into that hill and create a twisting tunnel with lots of traps. We'd need all our Blood ink and probably five times more to cover the tunnel and draw all Seals to create traps and weapons."

"Wait, I still don't understand how you are going to use this all."

"Remember when we were in the Dungeon, I noticed that its floor was able to transfer Mana? Dippo said back then that the floor was riddled with Mana circuits that were used to activate spells from a distance. Our tunnel will act the same - we'll draw circuits and Seals using Blood ink, and I'll active them from the depth of the tunnel."

Kanai became quite. He sat there in silence, glaring at Orisa with a dumbfounded expression.

"This is madness," he said after a long pause.

"This. Is. Sp-."

"Oh, shut up, I'm serious. I'm not sure that you understand even half of all the possible things that could go wrong."

"A cave-in could either crush us or lead to suffocation. If we'd fail to kill most of the Beasts, we will be against a horde without any place to retreat. There is a possibility of burrowing monsters flanking us, too. Also, Beasts capable of sending something like a wave of fire down the tunnel would pose a significant problem. And the Blood ink isn't invulnerable as it might end up damaged, rendering the entire plan impossible. There are construction and design issues, too."

"Why, then?! I don't understand what's going inside your inflamed, potion-corrupted brain at all. Why not regroup with others from our squad, at least?"

"Because we are running out of time, Kanai. What was the delay between Waves when we first came to this world? Around four or five days, right? So, what about now? I'd say, less than three days already. We need to speed up and move to the next stage because God knows what awaits us after that. What if that cave is only the first step out of ten or even of a hundred steps? If we know nothing, the best thing is to assume the worst. And your idea to regroup with others is out of the question, of course. Don't you remember that Dippo is under probation, and the Layer is frequented by various commissions and inspectors? They are constantly interrogating everyone, too. How are we supposed to meet up? How much time would it take for things to calm down? We don't have that luxury here."

Still fuming, Kanai faced Orisa with a tense expression. The plan of hers was of unprecedented danger, far beyond reckless, borderline insane. She wasn't wrong in her assumptions, but the way she tried to solve everything made Kanai dizzy. Suddenly, Orisa took his hand squeezed tight:

"Kanai, please, be with me on this. I won't survive alone and... and I don't want to be in this all without you. Please..."

Kanai dropped on a sleeping bag and let out a long sigh without Orisa letting go of his hand. He stared at the tent's ceiling while listening to the sound of rain. His brain understood the suicidal direction of this plan all too well. Despite that, Kanai's soul felt at peace for some reason, even eager to try and undertake this mad ordeal together with Orisa. He let out another sigh.

"How are we going to do it?"

---

---

The first stage of the preparation was to create a tunnel. Orisa and Kanai stood at the foot of the rocky hill, inspecting it thoroughly. In all honesty, it was Orisa who did the inspection, with Kanai looking at her questioningly.

"And how were you hoping to make a tunnel in solid rock?" he asked finally.

"To tell you the truth, I already practiced a bit. Well, it worked on the ground, but I'll need your help with the stone."

Without further delay, Orisa stretched her hand forward and chanted:

"Lagann!"

The Diamond Seal appeared first, followed by The Steelskin Seal and Sharpening Seal. They merged in one circle and produced a meter-sized... drill.

"A... drill?" muttered dumbfounded Kanai.

"Our drill is the drill that will pierce the Heavens!" shouted Orisa happily. She twisted her wrist slightly, and the drill began to rotate slowly in a clockwise direction.

"I... um... I mean... Really?"

"What were you expecting, bro? An excavator?"

"Uh, right. What should I do, then?"

"Throw your corrosive spell right in front of me. It is supposed to soften the stone. When the corrosion is over, I'll drill through the patch of weakened rock. Rinse and repeat. Also, while I'm drilling, you are in charge of our protection."

"Do you think this size will be enough for the Beasts to pass through?" he asked skeptically.

"We'll expand it later on, don't worry. Don't worry, mate. Orisa and Kanai, O and K, so everything will be okay."

"How are you even coming up with such cringey lines!?"

And so, the first Lazra Mining Company was founded. At first, the work dragged and stalled on each possible step. Since Orisa was busy with mining, they had trouble rounding the Beasts who were attracted to both Mana and the noise. There was no reliable way to remove the crushed rock from the tunnel.

Slowly but surely, the tunnel went deeper. By the end of the first day, the pair managed to go only as far as five meters into the hill. But day after day they tirelessly worked while farming the Beasts. There were no empty containers to store the blood, so the corpses were left to dissolve outside, letting their cores be harvested in the evening.

At one point, Orisa created a small branching tunnel, and they moved their belongings inside to escape the rain. It became livelier when they started working in a dry environment, and the process went even faster. Twice during the construction period, the entrance was blocked by a large pile of corpses.

"Have you thought about this issue?" Kanai asked while waiting for the corpses to dissolve naturally.

"Well, yes. I think we don't need to concern ourselves with the corpses. They will make a natural chokepoint, a limiter of sorts. That way we won't have to deal with all Beasts at the same time."

"What about the Burrowers?"

"It takes time to make holes. And I'm sure you'll be able to deal with them alone."

"Right..."

The first stage of construction has ended nine days later. They sat in the furthest end of the fifty meters long tunnel, a wide room that will serve as their base and the last line of defense in case of emergency. Orisa had spent most of the day solely on this chamber, making it spacious enough for them to move freely. One of the hardest parts of this step was the removal of crushed stone. And now tired and dirty pair sat inside the room, resting on sleeping bags.

"The air here is heavy," Kanai slowly said.

"Yeah, I'll think of ventilation tomorrow..." Orisa muttered tiredly and let out a yawn. She was completely exhausted, both mentally and physically.

"I still can't believe we made it this far..."

"So, would you doubt me ever again?" she asked with a cocky tone.

"I don't doubt you, per see. What I doubt is your sanity."

"Where is my mind. Where is my mind," Orisa began to hum quietly.

They moved the sleeping bags closer to the entrance to get more fresh air and called it a day. After a modest dinner composed mostly of various parts of Beasts and some random tree roots, the pair dropped dead into their improvised beds.

"I bet we stink like a cesspool," Kanai muttered sleepily.

"What do you mean? I don't smell anything weird."

"That's because of our noses gradually adapting to the smell. When was the last time you took a bath?"

"Um... well... Somewhere this past week?" Orisa answered with an awkward smile.

"Bo-boop, wrong answer. Anyhow, I know it's cold out there, but let's try to wash something besides our hands and faces tomorrow."

"You softie. If we wait long enough, the dirt will fall off by itself."

"Yes-yes, first thing in the morning tomorrow we are going back to the river," Kanai said with a tone implying no objections.

"By the way, Kanai, I meant to ask for a long time. How did you die?"

It was quiet for several minutes before he let out a sigh and said slowly:

"In the most absurd way possible. Imagine a perfect evening with you and your, well, close friend walking and having the best day of your life. And the moment it began getting even better..." Kanai paused, reminiscing days gone, but an unusual silence from the other side alerted him: "Hey, are you even listening?"

Orisa was soundly sleeping in her warm and comfy sleeping bag. Gritting his teeth, Kanai muttered before turning away from her:

"I swear, one day you won't wake up after a stunt like that."

The next day they had spent doing each their own tasks: Kanai was in charge of painting the interiors of the tunnel while Orisa drilled tiny ventilation holes. Her task was way harder since the last room of their excavation ended up more than ten meters away from the surface to make the burrower's work harder, and less incentive for other Beasts to try and smash through the rock.

"We are out of ink," Kanai said after finishing less than one-third of the tunnel.

"Well, that was to be expected, bro. Okay, let's take a short break and get back to grinding reagents."

"The more we do it, the more it sounds like another MMORPG..."

"You don't say, man, you don't say."

It took the pair five more days to finish the blood circuits. Today was the last day of the preparation phase, and while Orisa was drawing the Seals needed to make traps, Kanai went to the river to take a bath and refill their water supplies. Half an hour had passed before Orisa began to worry. She put away her instruments and went towards their usual river spot to check on him.

She came out of the woods at full speed and almost bumped into Kanai who was in the middle of releasing his pent-up male needs.

"Oh shit, I'm sorry!" Orisa shouted and turned around.

"Another wonderful day, yay... God, I so want to die right now," muttered Kanai while slowly getting dressed.

"I'm really, really sorry, Kanai. I can leave so that, um..."

"No, thanks, I don't think that now I'll be needing it this year or maybe the entire life."

"I'm an idiot, bro. Forgive me, please."

"Yeah-yeah, too late to cry over a not spilled milk."

They both chuckled awkwardly, and Orisa helped him pack bottles of water. As they began to walk back to the camp, Orisa muttered:

"Um, Kanai, do you want me, well, um..."

"What?"

"I mean, you know, to help you with..."

"What's wrong with you!?" he exclaimed angrily. "Do you want me to help you get off, then?"

"Geez, of course not. Eww, gross."

"Then why the fuck do you think I would want that!?"

"Well, I mean... I heard boys had it harder than us, so... Yeah, I'm sorry for saying stupid thing again."

"You better get these ideas out of your cotton-filled head," Kanai puffed furiously.

"It's not like I wanted it or something!"

"Yeah-yeah, the more you say it, the more you look like you really want it. Keep going, please."

"Geez, I hate you."

"Than stop peeping at naked men already, you daily closet pervert."

"What!? How dare you... Okay, I get the joke, nice one."

The preparations were completed by the next afternoon. They moved all the luggage into the furthest room of the tunnel, and Orisa explained the last bit of the plan:

"Okay, so I'll be sitting here and filling the blood circuits with Mana. You go to the entrance and launch Siri. I'll be activating Seals constantly to chew the Beasts, but if someone would run past the first half of the tunnel, you'll have to deal with them. If things go south, I'll blow up the second part of the path to barricade us here. The walls inside this room are reinforced with Seals, so it shouldn't collapse, but just in case I'll make an additional barrier to protect us. We'll have enough water and food to last several days and figure out how to get out. As for the air, I'll drill another hole if needed."

"Are you one hundred percent sure we are going this, Orisa?" Kanai asked with a barely noticeable trembling in his voice.

"It is the only way."

"I highly doubt it, but it would be a waste to let such a construction go unused, I guess. Okay, I'll be going up."

"Bro, wait a moment," Orisa abruptly hugged him for a second, then sipped a potion.

"Okay, here goes another red flag. Nice job, commander."

"Actually, I think we forgot something, but I'm not sure what it is."

As Kanai slowly paced toward the exit with an orb of light illuminating the tunnel, the blood ink on the walls began to emit a red glow. He passed by tens of same red Seals that were connected to the blood circuit but were not active yet and shivered from thinking how much destructive power this part harbored. With each passing second, the glow increased in intensity.

Kanai stopped at the entrance and put Siri down on the ground. Without wasting a single second in fear of getting cold feet, he channeled Mana into the device, and a huge impulse went out of it several seconds later. It took him five seconds to understand what had just changed. It was the blood circuit that stopped glowing.

Gripping Siri in his arms, Kanai dashed back into the depth of the mine. What he found in the last room was Orisa on the ground, wriggling in pain, vomiting breakfast, just like the last time Siri was used near her by Dippo.

"Shit!"