Chapter 38

Chapter 38

“Wrong!” Riven said cheerfully, trotting over and taking a seat a couple feet away with his legs crossed. “Worst-case scenario is you being dead. You got out, didn’t you?”

Jalel looked up to Riven and then suspiciously to Athela, but gradually he shook his head no and tried to rub the sleepiness out of his eyes again. “No. I am still here, damned to this dungeon until I am able to buy my way out by finding something of value. There are still many questions that I have for you...such as why you chose to leave all that treasure behind. We lost a fortune because you chose to save that spider instead of taking the bag last night.”

Treasure, huh? Jalel had been very nonspecific about what was in those two bags, but Riven’s anger spiked yet again at another negative comment about Athela.

His eyes darkened, and he took an aggressive step forward with a quickly souring mood that was not unnoticed by Jalel. Riven’s voice lowered threateningly, coming out as almost a growl. “You ungrateful little punk. I’ll only say this once, Jalel, so listen very carefully. I don’t know you, and I don’t know what you went through to get here. I don’t know anything about your situation where you have to buy your way out of this place. However, if you keep talking about Athela like that, I’ll give you something to really cry about. I’ll leave you crippled, alone, and I’ll take that bag for myself so I don’t have to hear you whine like a little bitch about it every five seconds. Or I’ll just let Athela eat you. Got it?”

Jalel’s face quickly paled, and he slowly nodded his head in acknowledgment of the very real threat.

Athela, on the other hand, seemed to brighten up with newfound admiration, staring at Riven through those widened ruby eyes just like she’d done last night when he’d saved her from becoming lurker food. “You’ll let me eat him?!”

[Optional Quest “Save the Prisoners” completed: You have saved two of two prisoners aside from Athela and have acquired half of potential rewards based on performance. You have gained two levels, a specialized dagger upgrade, and twenty-five Elysium Coins.]

[You have gained two levels, one for each victim saved. Congratulations! Be sure to visit your status page to apply points.]

A sack of coins abruptly fell onto the floor in front of him, much to everyone’s surprise, and he opened it to see twenty-five bronze coins with an insignia of a sunrise imprinted on the metal. Ah. Nice, the eight consecutive hours must have just passed...and these must be the Elysium coins that the system had just spoken of.

Then, seconds later, a popping sound occurred, and Riven saw his embalmer’s knife being drawn out of his belt and into the air toward a small constellation of crimson-colored moats of light. They shifted and swirled in the air between the room’s three occupants, changing angulation and orientation relative to the people but maintaining a rigid, strict formation until his knife entered a halo of red in the very center.

[Upgrade concerning your Rusted Embalmer’s Knife is now commencing. Upgrades are dependent on your current level, orientations, and needs. Please dismiss this prompt if you do not wish the upgrade to continue.]

Riven ignored the spider’s quip about eating Jalel again and merely stared, not daring to dismiss this new prompt as the constellation of lights in the middle of the room swirled and rapidly condensed. The sound of a chime rang out, soft and long, and with another flash of light, a new item emerged from the system’s enchantment.

It was a beautiful weapon, made primarily of gray and deep-blue steel. Faint trimmings of gold decorated various parts of the blade with intricate carvings, with red metal of some sort thrown in through the center of the blade and along the handle. Hesitantly, Riven reached out to grab the blade where it floated at eye level.

Immediately he felt a chilling sensation run up his arm. He felt a sense of dread enter him. He felt something beginning to bore and tear into his hand, little tendrils of wriggling...things...and he quickly dropped the dagger to let it clatter to the ground.

“Fuck!” he cursed and stepped away, with the other two doing the same. From there, he was able to make out little fleshy tendrils snaking themselves back into the red hilt of the blade and reforming around the shaft. “That’s actual flesh trying to worm itself into me!”

Jalel tried to keep the disgust out of his voice as he said the word warlock, but he only partially succeeded. Riven could hear the underlying animosity.

“Why do you dislike warlocks so much?”

Jalel raised an incredulous eyebrow. “Excuse me?”

Riven tried to keep his cool and took in a long, drawn-out breath. Putting his hands on his temple to rub his forehead, he tried again. “Why is it that warlocks have a bad reputation? I’m assuming they do, based on your not-so-subtle hints.”

Jalel’s face lifted in surprise, and he put his arms around his knees with a curious glint to his eyes. “You...you’re asking me why your kind is hated by the rest of civilization?”

“Is that how it is?”

“That’s definitely how it is,” Jalel confirmed. He lifted up a hand as if to pose a question, thought better of it, and asked something else. “Some countries or cities across the core worlds even outlaw warlocks entirely, though not all. I’m sure you’ll eventually figure it out if you survive long enough. Is this your first time in hell?”

Riven laughed loudly, feeling Athela’s weight shift as the spider’s cold legs skittered off his back. Lifting up his arms to either side and motioning out the window, he gave Jalel a flat look. “Does it look like I’m a native to hell? I already told you that my world is being integrated. Use some context clues.”

“I wouldn’t know. Warlocks tend to do things like involve themselves with hell’s inhabitants.”

Riven face-palmed.

Jalel, on the other hand, kept going. “You’re from the last wave of integration. You’re going through the tutorials right now, that’s what you said, isn’t it? That means your world is integrating.”

Riven gave the other man an incredulous stare and threw up his hands. Was this guy stupid? Or was Jalel doing this just to annoy him? “Yes. That is literally what I just said.”

Jalel snorted, then nodded in confirmation of his own question. “Well, as I said earlier, I can’t tell you too much about it, but there are some things that I can tell you. The integration is the merging of worlds from outside the multiverse. Every couple decades Elysium has a new integration of planets that join the systems of Elysium—a multitude of universes that it has underneath its own umbrella of control. It takes them from outer realms and stitches them into the realms of this multiverse, an ever-expanding and almost endless system of worlds. As to why you warlocks are hated...there’s a very long history to that. Warlocks have been accountable for numerous atrocities throughout the millennia and care little for the people they harm in pursuit of greater power. The Unholy pillar in general is looked down upon by the other, more civilized sects of society.”

The following silence was tangible, and only the sound of a far-off scream of panic broke the silence.

It caused Riven to turn and look out the balcony window onto the ruined city of flames and blood mists, but that scream could have been from anywhere...so it was only a minor distraction before Riven turned his attention back to the other man. “Tell me more of what you can, please. I’d really like to know as much as possible. Surely there is more you can say without angering the system.”