Chapter 24

Chapter 24

The next two hours were spent making another of the incomplete leeching totems. They worked step by step right until Tanya called everyone in for a break. By this point Riven was confident in his ability to remake the totem given the right ingredients, and there were even substitutions for the quartz crystals he could use via other types of gemstones, but he was still unsure about adding the soul shard. That was going to be the hardest part and would require him to utilize the Death subpillar—which he still hadn’t bound to his soul yet. The description in the manual had a lot of theory behind it that he didn’t quite understand. But he was still very excited to see what would happen when these incomplete totems eventually acquired their soul shards. It would be a venture for another day.

Tanya passed around snacks she’d made, having cooked some more meat they’d taken out of an equivalent refrigerator left by the system for food storage that was fueled by water magic. They had the day-old bread as well, and it still tasted just as great as it had twenty-four hours prior without having gone stale at all.

Julie was excitedly explaining to her younger brother and her mother the specifics of the forge that she and Hakim had learned about through the tutorial book, along with trial and error of their own. She was sweaty, covered in soot, and her hands were starting to blister before she’d wrapped them—but she was obviously enjoying the work. “We’re trying to make knives, because we don’t have all that much time. I don’t know how long it’s supposed to take, but we just finished a knife each...”

She held up her own finished product. It was made of solid iron and wasn’t perfect by any means—but they could tell she was proud of it. The edges weren’t entirely sharp and the leatherbound handle looked a little too big for the blade, but it was definitely a knife, all right.

[Crude Iron Knife, 5 average damage.]

Julie beamed as everyone clapped, setting it down in front of her with a smile. “The hand-forging of the blade, then grinding them to refine the shape...we had to make all the fittings, handles. Had to harden and temper them, then sharpen it again. It took a long time, but at least I have a weapon for the dungeon now!”

Riven thought about the extra bronze hatchet he’d taken off the sorcerer he’d killed and picked up his bag. Going through it, he quickly found the hatchet, then slid it over across the stone floor to Hakim. “Forgot I had this. Go ahead and use it if you want.”

[Bronze Hatchet, 10 average damage.]

Hakim wiped sweat from his brow, still breathing heavily from exertion, and looked at the knife he’d made for himself.

[Poor-Quality Iron Knife, 6 average damage.]

Passing his own knife to Tanya, he picked the hatchet up with a nod of thanks Riven’s way and pointed to the totems. “What are those?”

Riven raised an eyebrow. “Have you tried identifying them yet?”

Riven nodded, with the final tidbit of knowledge tucked away in his brain, snapped the book shut, and he was about to place it on a nearby table when it simply evaporated from his fingers in a cloud of warm, glowing white smoke.

[Tutorial dungeon is now opening.]

The large double doors in front of them creaked, the hinges on the heavy, rusted iron breaking and snapping open while dust and dirt fell to the floor. Swinging open and coming to a stop, the doorway lay wide-open before them.

It was the entrance into an abyss, a shadow of black that had no end. There was just a whole lot of nothingness on the other side of the door, and a deep chilling sensation ran through Riven’s bones when the cold air hit him.

“What the fuck?”

*WHOOSH*

In the next second, a howl of wind ripped him and everyone else off their feet, sucking them into the open entrance without warning. They went screaming into the yawning oblivion, the doors snapping shut behind them—blotting out the light while they fell.

Falling through the endless void of nothingness had Riven’s heart doing somersaults in his chest as his limbs flailed about him. He was internally cursing his luck, and that enraged cursing grew to even greater heights when a new and very unexpected message appeared in front of him.

[As one of the few who made it through Chalgathi’s Lineage Starter Quest to gain early access to the warlock class, you have once again acquired the attention of this entity through your various actions in the brief time afterward. Chalgathi has intervened in the tutorial process and has drawn you along with your comrades into his abyssal realm. You have one of two choices, and you have sixty seconds after reading this message to choose before immediate death sets in.

A Choice of Selfishness: Your four recently made allies (Tim, Julie, Tanya, and Hakim) will remain banished here forever, lost souls unable to escape the shadow they are secluded to and unable to sense anything but the darkness around them. Your selfish choice will benefit you, however, in that sacrificing their souls to Chalgathi’s realm will gain you four legendary-tier pieces of soul-woven warlock armor—the Soul-Woven Warlock Hood, Soul-Woven Warlock Pauldrons, Soul-Woven Warlock Robe, and Soul-Woven Warlock Boots—to complete one of the best early-stage outfit sets currently available across your world. You will then be placed back in the normal tutorial dungeon to complete it as the Elysium administrator deems fit.

Or, the next option...

A Choice of Selflessness: You choose to save your newly found friends and take the hard road yourself. Choosing this option notifies them of what you have done, the choice you had to make, and pushes them into a safe room within the dungeon: each given an early combat-type starter kit geared toward their chosen style of combat. They will each also receive an additional one ability tome to learn from, similar to the way that your first spells were taught, an event that will be given to them immediately. The catch is that choosing this option will separate you from the group and insert you into a minor hellscape dungeon of Chalgathi’s choosing instead of a normal tutorial dungeon. This hellscape dungeon will be much harder than the basic tutorial dungeon but will also have more opportunities for you to progress faster. Just like the tutorial dungeon, this hellscape dungeon will also have exits into Elysium that you must find in order to leave. That, or you must kill a dungeon boss or miniboss to leave.

The countdown to choose begins now. 60... 59... 58... 57...]