Chapter 39

Chapter 39

Riven’s demand made Jalel chuckle. The silver-haired man shrugged indifferently, waving a hand about the room with a loud snort. “What is there to say? I cannot remember the specifics.”

It was a blatant lie. Riven didn’t know why this stranger would lie to them, but Jalel hadn’t even attempted to hide it. He just didn’t want to talk. Perhaps it was because he couldn’t? Perhaps not, but the feeling he was getting from the snobbish smirk on Jalel’s face made Riven consider him a liar.

Riven paused, immediately shifting his posture and considering the man for a moment. Whoever this guy was, Riven really didn’t like him. “I see. Well, since you’re rather useless to us and haven’t wanted to share whatever is inside those bags after I saved your pathetic life, I’m done with you. You’ve insulted my minion numerous times and told me to leave her behind to die. We’re parting and going our separate ways; I wish you luck in getting back to wherever the fuck it was you came from.”

The abrasive, even somewhat aggressive stance Riven took caught Jalel off guard—and it was obvious in his face despite the defensive glower he shot Riven’s way.

Jalel tapped his fingers along his shins, clearly not liking the idea of being left behind to fend for himself, then shrugged. “Fine. It won’t hurt to tell you what I know—what isn’t off-limits to tell you, anyways.”

Riven shot him a disgusted look and turned, reaching down for his few belongings and beginning to pack up. “Get fucked.”

Jalel’s face grew even paler as he realized that Riven was serious. “Wait...this dungeon can’t be traversed by just—”

“I said, get fucked. You’re on your own, and I’m sure you’ll do a fine job by yourself considering how I found you,” Riven cut him off with another glare. Hoisting his wooden staff up and nodding to Athela as the demon chittered a long-winded laugh, he nodded toward the bolted door of the tower’s top room. “Let’s go, Athela.”

“Wait!” Jalel started to get up but stumbled back and fell against the wall as Athela rushed him—stopping halfway between where he and Riven stood while she displayed her hostile fangs that began dripping cold, necrotic venom, leaving black droplets along the stone floor as she slowly crept ahead.

Jalel was terrified and began to scream, and Riven snapped his fingers with a command to get her back. “Athela, don’t attack him. He’s a jackass, but we’re not murderers.”

“But we are murderers!” she argued with a disappointed humph—not letting her gaze leave the potential meal. “We already killed all those people in the tutorial, and we killed that other warlock, too! This man is no different—let me eat him! Please?!”

Jalel’s eyes went wide, and his knuckles turned white as he clenched his hands into fists. The outfit he’d put on after escaping, an outfit he’d drawn out of the bag, was made of leather and had a small knife in the side of a belt...and his fingers seemed to itch as they slowly went over to where it was sheathed.

Riven smirked, unintimidated by Jalel’s action, and shook his head. “No, Athela.”

“Please?!”

“I said no.”

She gave him another humph, then backed up and went to rub against Riven’s leg. “Okay.”

The color came back to Jalel’s face, and his hand dropped to his side. He just stared at Riven for a long moment before he cleared his throat and gestured to the bag. “What if I pay you to escort me out of here?”

Riven had been reaching for the door again, but that last statement gave him pause, and his frown deepened. The wind outside began to howl with a stark, brief blast of air before dying down again, and he turned to glance at the other man with suspicion.

“I thought you needed it to buy your way out?”

“I’ll be the one to worry about that. I just need to leave.”

There was another long pause. Eventually Riven lost that staring contest, faltered, and sighed. “What do you have to offer?”

Grudgingly, Jalel turned and stepped over to the large sack he’d taken with him. Opening it and rummaging around, he pulled out a smaller green sack that was tied with brown rope. He tossed it over to Riven, frowning. “Is that enough? You can use them at altars that will spawn in your world to buy items.”

Riven gave him a flat stare, then opened the bag in his hands. The bag jingled lightly, and, peering down into its contents, Riven saw a good number of copper, silver, and gold coins—each of them with the same insignia he’d seen on the system’s provided coins a minute before. There were likely a couple hundred in there, and Riven’s eyes narrowed while he shifted his weight and placed the sack in his backpack. “Altars? Are they like shops?”

“Kind of. It’s a little bit more complicated than that, but collecting these coins will allow you to exchange goods directly with the system, and it’s common currency in the core realms. You get these coins by killing certain monsters, completing quests, or mining ore and enchanting it in a specific way.”

“Really...” Riven glanced back down. Assuming he could use these to buy things in the outside world, money would be very important. “Athela, is this true?”

More than anything, Riven was just confused. “Athela, doesn’t magic usually work on spirits?”

“Of course it does!”

“Then why didn’t mine work on her?”

Athela shot him a look, then glanced back at the amused ghost, who now was sitting cross-legged in the middle of the stone room. “I don’t know.”

Kajit, however, had an answer. She lazily rolled over onto her side and gave him a disgusting belch, then gestured at him with one of her gnarled hands. “I haunt you when you touch wooden ring, yes? Wooden ring powerful curse onetime-use item. You pick up, curse transfer to you. Strong death magic curse. You see: I now reside in soul structure like fly on hippopotamus bum. To get Kajit out, you must pay special price.”

Riven gave the ghost an incredulous look, and then glanced worriedly toward Athela.

“YOU GOT HAUNTED?! When did that happen?!” Athela asked in a bewildered sputtering of words.

“Right after we got sent into the hellscape.”

“AND WHY DIDN’T YOU TELL ME?!”

“She seemed harmless earlier and only appeared once after I killed her physical body.”

“BEING HAUNTED IS A PRETTY BIG DEAL, RIVEN! And not many spirits can do that kind of thing! She’s likely a gods-damned phantom!”

“Bleh!” The ghost held up her right hand after pretending to inspect the nails that weren’t there. “I phantom, yes, but fear not, spider demon creature. I cannot eat soul even if try, even while haunted. Soul is too solid and likely eat me back, even before binding to great maw.”

The spider blinked twice, then hopped down off the ceiling and stared curiously up at Riven from the floor. “Oh, really? What does she mean by great maw, Riven? It appears there are things you haven’t told me yet since rescuing me yesterday.”

It likely meant only one thing. Riven frowned, not wanting to discuss such things in front of Jalel if the man already had such a poor opinion of warlocks to begin with. Riven wanted to get out of this damnable place, and he wasn’t sure someone like Jalel would lead him out willingly if they knew he had a piece of original sin in his soul structure.

He cleared his throat. “That’s a story for another time.”

“Yes, yes, now we talk about special price!” Kajit tossed the dagger over her shoulder, and it blipped out of existence, vanishing into thin air after a small portal of black swallowed it whole. “I take dagger now for my price, and then your price is next!”

Riven was beginning to get annoyed and crossed his arms, not so much threatened by the being in front of him but rather irritated by the way she’d just snagged the fancy dagger he’d been awarded. “So, to be clear, you’re residing in my soul now?”

“Yes, yes.”

“And you can’t harm me?”

The ghost paused, then shook her head. “No, no. I can harm but can’t eat soul. Complex death magic I explain another time if special price is paid. I even teach you like student. I once a great witch before I die and go to hell! Even if you stupid ape with noodle arms, I still teach!”

She beamed a brilliantly decrepit grin his way while wiggling her eyebrows. “Want to hear special price to take dagger back? I leave soul complex, and you learn death magic as Kajit’s student?!”

He stared her down for a time, hands still clenched in frustration. Ugh. This was not going to be good, was it?

Riven slowly nodded. “Tell me what this price you keep talking about is.”

Her smug look slowly turned upside down and into a frown. “You free Kajit’s sister’s soul from Tower of Fates before leaving hell.”

[New Quest Obtained: The Tower of Fates—Kajit, a phantom whose decaying corpse you happily stabbed a couple times back in the day, now is asking for your help. The Tower of Fates, a spot in existence accessible from hell only by those with significant prophetic abilities, holds Kajit’s sister captive. She wants you to get her sister out before you leave the dungeon. Failing this quest will no doubt result in the loss of your newly acquired dagger, an incredibly angry spirit, and the loss of knowledge otherwise obtained concerning death magic. As some free advice from the administrator, I would highly recommend you not decline trying, though...because otherwise you’re probably not going to make it out of this room alive.]