Chapter 74: Zarian’s Six Options

Chapter 74: Zarian’s Six Options

Zarian watched as Naomi and Gilbert kept their mouths shut, which was wise of them. Bianca, of course, didn’t sense the tension in the air.

She bounced giddily and threw her hand up. “Surprise! It was my idea!”

Then Bianca furrowed her brow. “Wait, how did you know? You’ve been gone for three days! Naomi was about to take on the entire Hemlock Family.”

“I really was,” Naomi admitted.

“I was tracking a few gangs and underworld groups with spectral spiders. Then me and Hannah got tossed as a sacrifice into a Rare Level 40 Dungeon, but once we got back, I saw through my spiders that you’ve left the underworld filled with crushed or charred corpses.”

“You were in a Rare Level 40 Dungeon?” Naomi blurted out. “No fair!”

“Naomi, relax girl, relax. Let me speak before Bianca messes this up.” Gilbert sighed, his hand massaging the bridge of his nose. “This all started because Bianca was worried over some bad hombres aiming to hurt the beggars you’ve helped.”

Zarian wanted to scold them for doing something that would throw the entire alignment ecosystem out of whack. But he hesitated.

His evil alignment wanted him to correct them for thinking they could act without his say. That would’ve been too controlling, of course. Zarian hated the idea of being a micromanager just as much as he hated the NCOs who’d done that to him back in the Marines.

A strong party should be able to divide and conquer. Still, the damage he was still learning about through his spectral spiders was immense.

“You might’ve gone a little too far,” Zarian said.

“Ah, eh, but it was to help the beggars, right?” Bianca’s body pulsated with an intense light that forced Zarian to wince.

Seeing that, she panicked and restricted her show of power. “Oh, sorry, sorry. Lo siento. I went evil-slaying crazy once we found them. And Naomi and Gilbert were forced to keep up because of me.”

Bianca fidgeted with her fingers. “It was supposed to be a surprise for you. To leave a message so they won’t hurt the people we help. And so you can do good things for others and not have to worry.”

Bianca looked away. “They were so horrible. So I just kept going. And we killed a lot and a lot until we couldn’t find any more. And we helped a bunch of people, too!”

Zarian nodded slowly. His spectral spiders were still scurrying about as quickly as they could. But it looked like Bianca’s words rang true.

There were bloody or burnt corpses where thugs, criminals, and evil villains congregated in the subterranean areas beneath the streets. There were secret black markets down there that made use of natural caverns, tunnels, and even the storm drainage system.

Zarian kept looking through his spectral spiders to grasp the scope of the massacre. But he also saw the empty cages and empty pits that had once held innocent people or tortured beasts forced into cruel games.

The people and beasts were free. The games were gone. He saw empty torture chambers and empty markets that were for selling humans. Those were inactive now. Bianca’s ill-advised crusade had saved plenty of victims.

The few people his spectral spiders found were random scavengers trying to survive. With the black market cleared out, there wasn’t anyone there who could kick them around or snatch them up for something gruesome.

In fact, there were more beggars moving in. They were cleaning up the place.

Zarian let out a heavy breath.

Bianca shifted nervously. Naomi waited patiently. Gilbert looked like he wanted to get a drink.

Zarian watched them for a long while before letting out a hearty chuckle. He rubbed the back of his neck and shook his head.

“Damn, guys, that has to be the nicest and most extreme thing anyone has ever done for me,” Zarian admitted. “You went on genocide just because I was worried that my kindness would be taken for weakness.”

“You’re not angry?” Bianca asked. “I killed a lot of evil aligned people. Like, a lot, a lot. None of them were as nice as you, and it was kind of fun, but still ...”

“I think I’m an unusual human on the evil aligned side. I’m aware of evil serving best as a tool instead of letting it consume me. So I bet some of those guys deserved it.”

Zarian shrugged.

“Still, there will be trouble for doing that,” Hannah interjected.

She was holding the leather journal in her hands now instead of keeping it in one of her pockets. It was one of the three treasures they’d taken from the Devouring Library Dungeon.

She rubbed along the journal’s edges while deep in thought before saying, “It’s one thing to take out a single group of villains. It’s another to eradicate all the villainous groups. Which is ... hard to believe even as I say it.”

“My spectral spiders are still finding corpses down there,” Zarian said. “If not all of them, you definitely removed most of them.”

“Not all of them were that high in level,” Gilbert admitted. “After taking out some of their best fighters, things became drastically easy from there. Too easy. Ugh, I need a drink.”

“The big lug was the one who found them,” Naomi said.

“Oh, don’t heap that on me! The moment Bianca spoke up about it, you instigated. You are a horrible, horrible instigator!” Gilbert pointed.

Naomi shrugged. “All I did was be myself. You all know what I’m like. There were enemies. And I killed them.” She smiled. “Now we’re all stronger. Gilbert’s Level 38. I’m Level 39. And this golden child here...”

“Level 41,” Bianca admitted. “I already chose it. I’m ... I’m ... a Light Princess!”

“Legendary?” Zarian asked.

“Yes!” Bianca looked like she wanted to reach out and hug someone.

Zarian gave her the perfect person. “Hannah’s legendary, too. Runic Engineer.”

Naomi looked hungry and ambitious. Bianca looked between Hannah and the core held in Para’s makeshift arms.

Hannah continued the story without interruption, going over the boss battle and how she’d taken over the obelisks, and finishing up with beating Rhea and crushing her pride as a Hemlock until she became subservient.

There was a long silence.

Then Naomi said, “Damn, Hannah. I didn’t know you were a gangster like that.”

Hannah took a slow sip of beer from her mug. “They shouldn’t have fucked around.”

“Oh, my!” Bianca traded looks with Gilbert.

Naomi cracked a grin. “Alright, nice. Your story is way better than ours. We just fought assholes. So tell us what you guys got?”

Hannah told them about their gains, such as the epic Lore Eater trait, the skills from the treasure chests, and then her own changes as the legendary Runic Engineer. By the time she was done, Naomi looked even more hyped.

“Let me get legendary, let me get legendary, please let me get legendary,” Naomi grumbled.

“You’ll get there, woman. Just hold your horses.” Gilbert took another large gulp of his beer. Then he poured himself a refill.

“Congrats, Hannah!” Bianca cheered.

Hannah nodded. “Thank you. I’ve certainly come out changed from the experience. Better yet, if Rhea and the Hemlock Family remain honest, then their vast reach and resources are ours to use in the Eternal Garden Kingdom and perhaps beyond. If they don’t betray us.”

“I doubt it,” Naomi said. “This Rhea person sounds like she’s pragmatic, even if she’s a bitch. That and clearing out the underbelly of Central Bramblevale and taking their ancient dungeon is going to send a message to everyone. They don’t want to mess with us.”

“Hm, yes, I suppose the ramifications of our actions can be used to our advantage,” Hannah admitted. “We’ve accomplished a lot in the short time we’ve been here. It’s almost scary how fast and how far we’ve gone.”

“They shouldn’t let Floridians into fantasy land,” Gilbert said.

“Nah, blame the sir.” Naomi flashed a sharp smile at Zarian. Everyone focused on him.

Alright, alright, I’ve made them wait long enough.

“I’m only Level 45, by the way,” Zarian admitted.

“What, really?” Hannah was shocked. “I thought you’d be further along.”

“I didn’t reach my first class advancement until the last few monster rooms. Don’t forget, I’ve been mostly inactive, even if I’ve supplied the skeletons and provided you my support. Most of the experience would go to everyone else. Thus, I took longer to hit Level 40 after we started the crawl.”

“But what about when I gained three levels because of the System Alert? You forced the System to deliver a hasty patch, and I grew from that.” Hannah sounded upset.

“You started it by pulling Reiki out of the core. All I did was intervene. Besides, who said I didn’t gain experience? I probably did, but it wasn’t enough to move the needle then.”

“Ah ... I see. Well. It’s weird that I’ve gotten so close to you.” Hannah left it at that.

Zarian paused to go over his memories while putting aside the knowledge he’d eaten from members of the Hemlock Family. Thankfully, his Fractured Mind was good at compartmentalizing and sorting. He found the exact details he wanted.

“These were my best options out of hundreds of classes I could’ve picked during the re-select.”

One:

<Devil Wizard (Legendary): This class grants you the Seven Cursed Scrolls of Sinful Destruction, a soul bound skill. It offers 1 epic trait, 1 uncommon trait, and additional stats: +1 Wonder and +1 Mysticism. This class is evil aligned.>

Two:

<Eldritch Wizard (Legendary): This class changes your Parasite Cloak to Eldritch Cloak. It offers 2 rare traits and additional stats: +2 Wonder. This class is evil aligned.>

Three:

<Black Wizard (Epic): This class comes with 1 uncommon trait and 3 skills of your choice. It offers an additional +1 Mysticism. This class is evil aligned.>

Four:

<Wizard Knight (Epic): This class comes with 4 skills of your choice. It offers an additional +1 Strength. This class is neutral aligned.>

Five:

<Madness Wizard (Legendary): This class comes with the Grimoire of the Mad Voidling Prince, a soul bound skill. This class offers 2 rare traits and additional stats: +2 Wonder. This class is evil aligned.>

Six:

<Magnificent Martyr (Mythical): This class comes with the Magnificent Sacrifice skill and offers an additional +3 Wonder. This class is good aligned.>

Once that was all listed, Zarian looked into everyone’s eyes. He took a sip of his drink before placing it down on the counter and asked:

“So, which one did I pick?”